Superwomen of Eva 2: Girl of Steel
by Mike313
Summary: Mana Kirishima just wanted to be a normal girl. She never had any desire to be a super heroine. But fate had other plans for her, and she'll be forced to face some of the most dangerous forces in Tokyo-3. Fortunately, she's got a secret weapon.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Prologue: **New Beginnings

"I hope you don't think I'm absolutely crazy for taking this offer, Mana-chan," Hazumi Kirishima said as she steered her car off the freeway and onto more local roads.

"Don't be silly, Mom," Mana said as she watched the landscape fly by outside the car window, "I don't think you're nuts at all."

"Well, that makes one of us," Hazumi said with a small sigh. "I'm taking us to live in a war zone."

"Mom, you know that you couldn't have turned down that job offer with Yamagishi Enterprises," Mana said. "Besides, I'm actually kind of excited to be living in Tokyo-3."

Hazumi took her eyes off the road just long enough to give her daughter a quick, wry glance. "Because it's the city of the superwomen?"

Mana blushed slightly. It was true that she was a big fan of girls with the fantastic powers that had recently started popping up in Tokyo-3. She followed nearly every scrap of news carefully and even owned some of the merchandise that people were starting to sell.

"It's not just that," she answered truthfully. "For as long as I can remember, you've always worked for the military, and we've always been moving from base to base because of it. I guess I'm just looking forward to maybe having a more normal life."

Hazumi smiled at that, but it was forced. From her perspective, Tokyo-3 was little more than a giant military base, and it was the last place anyone looking for a normal life should go.

_Maybe I'm just being pessimistic,_ she thought to herself. _Maybe my fears are overblown, and I'm just being silly._

In any case, she saw no reason to argue the point with her daughter. There was no need to try and crush the girl's sunny disposition, and it wasn't exactly as if she knew something about the city that Mana didn't.

_Who knows, maybe we will get to live a normal life in our new home after all,_ Hazumi thought.

Needless to say, she was quite wrong about this.

* * *

Mother and daughter arrived at their new place by mid-afternoon, and Mana didn't even try to hold back the grin that spread over her face as they pulled into the driveway.

"This is so cool," she said.

Hazumi chuckled. "It's just a house, Mana-chan."

"Just a house?" Mana echoed incredulously. "Mom, this is more space than we've ever had before! We can set up a workshop, and we can both have our own bedrooms, and I bet the bathroom even has a tub instead of just a shower. Yamagishi Enterprises must have really wanted you on the payroll bad to have offered to let us live here."

"I'd like to think that's true," Hazumi replied. "Come on, let's have ourselves a look around and then start unpacking."

Mana quickly agreed and mother and daughter went inside their new home to look around. It wasn't a large house, even by Japanese standards, but there was a basement that they quickly agreed would make the perfect workshop, and there were indeed two bedrooms, as well as a bathroom with a tub.

"This is the best place we've ever lived in," Mana said delightedly as they finished exploring the house. "I can't wait to decorate my new room!"

Hazumi smiled, pleased to see her daughter so delighted, and not a little bit proud of herself for finally managing to provide a more than adequate lifestyle for her, even if it was in a place like Tokyo-3.

"One thing at a time, Mana-chan," Hazumi said. "For now, let's just concentrate on getting our things inside and unpacked. Come on."

They returned to the car and began to move their things inside. It wasn't a very long task; the Kirishimas had never been in danger of acquiring an overabundance of material possessions. The way they had often hopped around Japan and then lived in rather cramp quarters had discouraged it, and the last few months had been very rough for them financially, forcing them to part ways with even more of their things.

Of course, just because the job was fairly short didn't necessarily mean it was easy. While they had little difficulty with most of their boxes, a select few were heavy enough that it required both of them to move just one, and even then it was still a struggle. The fact that these all needed to be moved down to the basement didn't make the task any less arduous.

"I still can't believe they just let you take all this stuff," Mana panted as they placed one of the boxes down on the floor.

"Well, it's not like this perpetual side project ever had much of a chance of being profitable," Hazumi said. "Each unit would just cost too much. Nobody else wanted it, so I got to keep it."

"And later on, I'll be thankful for that," Mana groaned as she stretched her sore muscles. "Ugh, why did we bother taking that big hammer?"

Hazumi shrugged. "Come on, just a few more boxes."

"Yatta," Mana said sarcastically.

After another half an hour of moving boxes, they had succeeded in getting all their things into the house, although most of the actual unpacking still awaited them. However, both mother and daughter were more than willing to break for dinner, and so Hazumi ordered out for pizza.

"Our first meal in our new home," Mana noted cheerfully as they dug in.

"Mediocre take-out pizza and soda," Hazumi said with a smirk. "You're getting very sentimental here, Mana-chan."

"I'm just excited," Mana said. "I can't wait to start school."

Hazumi smiled, even as she felt a twinge of guilt shoot through her. Thanks to the way they'd often moved around, Mana had spent very little time in any one school, and oftentimes was tutored by Hazumi herself instead of receiving a normal education. She had no doubt that Mana would not be behind (her daughter, she thought proudly, was nothing short of a prodigy, and Hazumi liked to think that she was decent teacher), but the girl had not exactly enjoyed a normal childhood thus far.

_Well, maybe now _that_ can finally change,_ Hazumi thought.

"Hey," she said, raising her glass, "to new beginnings."

Mana smiled and clinked her glass against her mother's. "To new beginnings," she agreed.

* * *

The next morning, Mana got dressed and made her way to school, where, after a quick visit to the office, she was soon greeted by the representative of her new class, who was called to show her around.

"Hello, I'm Hikari Horaki," the pigtailed girl greeted her with a polite bow.

Mana bowed back, then straightened and smiled. "I'm Mana Kirishima, pleased to meet you."

"You, too," Hikari replied. "Let me show you to the classroom. I'll give you a tour of the school later."

Mana nodded and fell in step next to Hikari as they left the office and ventured out into the halls. As they walked, the auburn-haired girl couldn't help but notice how empty the place seemed.

_I guess it's no surprise, all things considered,_ she thought, feeling the cheerful mood that had gripped her ever since coming to this place dampen somewhat.

"So," Hikari said, "why did you come to Tokyo-3, if you don't mind my asking? Do your parents work for NERV?"

"No, at least not directly," Mana replied. "My mother's a scientist who was hired by the research division of a company that's based here. But I'm pretty sure the company's here because it makes stuff for NERV."

Hikari nodded in understanding. She had been pretty sure that the new girl wasn't an EVA pilot; Asuka probably would have told her if a new one was coming. However, the class rep hadn't been able to figure out any other reason for Mana to come to the city.

Hikari also noticed that Mana hadn't mentioned her father, but she didn't ask about that. Students with only one parent were the rule rather than the exception in Class 2-A, and Hikari had no wish to risk putting her foot in her mouth. The rest of the short walk to the classroom was spent in amicable silence.

"The Sensei should be arriving soon," Hikari said as they arrived at their destination. "I'll introduce you to some people during lunch, but for now, why don't you just take the seat next to Ikari there?"

"Sure," Mana replied, heading to the desk the class rep had indicated.

The boy named Ikari didn't acknowledge her as she sat down in the desk next to his; he was listening to an old SDAT player and was apparently dead to the world. She considered saying something to him, or perhaps tapping him on the shoulder, but the Sensei chose that particular moment to walk in.

"Stand! Bow! Sit!" Hikari barked suddenly, and Mana reflexively obeyed, along with the rest of the class.

_Wow, I wouldn't have expected that from her a minute ago,_ Mana thought.

"Good morning, class," the aged teacher greeted his students. "Today we have a new student with us. Kirishima-san, why don't you come up here and introduce yourself?"

Having never spent a full year in one school yet, Mana was an old hand at this ritual. She got up and quickly wrote her name on the chalkboard with her admittedly somewhat messy kanji, then turned to the group of faces.

"Hi, everyone, my name's Mana Kirishima," she said. "I've bounced around a lot in the past, but it looks like I just might stay in this city for a while, so I'm looking forward to meeting everybody."

Her piece said, Mana then went and sat back down at her seat, and the Sensei started the day's lesson.

"Many years ago, before the Second Impact shook the very foundation of human society, the world was a very different place," the old man said.

Mana tried to pay attention, not wanting to get herself marked a slacker or something on her very first day, but she soon found herself zoning out despite herself as the man droned on and on about recent history.

She soon realized that the rest of the class was far from attentive. Hikari was rapidly typing, apparently taking notes in defiance of the sleep-inducing effect of the lecture. It was an… impressive show of dedication to academics, Mana decided, but the class rep was the only one who was so determined. Several other students appeared to be dozing, and one large boy who was clad in a tracksuit rather than the school uniform had laid his head on his desk and was actually snoring, albeit softly.

_Guess you don't really have to pay attention to this,_ Mana thought, and then looked up at the clock. Exactly seven minutes had elapsed since the start of school.

And she had been _so_ excited to go to a normal school like a normal kid. Silly her.

Bored, Mana booted up her school laptop, and then started a word processor program. Once it was up and running, she increased the font size from the default, typed in a brief message, and then gestured at the boy Hikari had said was named Ikari until she looked over at her and her screen.

(Does he do this often?) She had written.

Ikari opened up the same program she was using on his own computer and wrote back to her. (Every day.)

(Ouch.) She responded, grimacing.

(You get used to it.) Ikari replied.

Mana wasn't at all sure that she would, but she decided not to argue the point. (So, what's your name? I'm Mana, but I guess you know that.) She gave him a small smile as she showed him this message, but he didn't appear to notice.

(I'm Shinji Ikari.) He replied.

(So, do your parents work for NERV?) Mana asked. Hikari had given her the impression that almost everyone's parents did.

The question seemed to jar Shinji, who hesitated for a long moment before answering.

(Yes.)

(So have you lived here very long?) She asked.

(No.)

(You're not a very chatty person, are you?) Mana commented.

(I'm sorry.) Shinji replied.

(There's no need to apologize.) Mana typed. (I'm just bored, and I was hoping to "talk" a little.)

(About what?) Shinji replied.

(Well, how long have you lived here?) Mana asked.

(A few months.)

(So what do you know about the city?)

Shinji gave a small shrug and began to type.

* * *

The teacher's seemingly endless droning was finally brought to a halt by the bell signaling the start of the lunch period, and several of the students quickly fled from the room, heading outside to eat lunch. Mana quietly thanked Shinji for keeping her occupied and then headed outside, planning to take the class rep up on her offer of doing a few introductions.

"Hi, Hikari," Mana greeted the pig-tailed girl out in the schoolyard.

"Mana, I was just looking for you," Hikari said. "Let me show you around."

The class rep took the new girl on a brief tour of the school, introducing her to a few people as they went. Eventually, they ended up at one of the tables outside, where they sat down to eat along with a redheaded girl.

"Hi, Asuka," Hikari greeted her. "This is Mana Kirishima. She's the new student."

"Hello," the redhead said to Mana. "I'm Asuka Langley Soryu. I'm a pilot of one of the Evangelions."

Mana's eyes widened slightly. "Wow, really?"

Asuka nodded. "Yup. Unit Two, the red one, is mine."

"That's the first production-model EVA, isn't it?" Mana asked.

"You got it. Arguably, it's the first _real_ Evangelion," Asuka said, visibly preening.

"How do you know so much about the Evangelions, Mana?" Hikari asked, confused.

She hadn't known that Unit Two was the first production-model Evangelion, and she was Asuka's best friend.

"Oh, well, my mother was part of the team that designed the Jet Alone robot," Mana explained, "so naturally, she knew a bit about the competition."

"The Jet Alone?" Asuka echoed, surprised.

"Yeah, I know that whole thing was a disaster," Mana groaned. "It wouldn't have been if they had made my mother head of the project, but they didn't, and the company she worked for just sort of started to collapse afterwards. They laid her off, and eventually we ended up here."

"So what do you think about living in Tokyo-3?" Hikari asked, deciding it was probably better to get the subject of the conversation away from giant war machines.

Mana smiled. "I think it's really cool, actually," she answered. "Part of me thinks I'm insane not to feel scared at the idea of living here, but I'm excited to live in the city of the superwomen."

"Big fan of them, are you?" Asuka asked, with an expression on her face that Hikari couldn't quite interpret.

"Oh, yeah," Mana replied cheerfully.

"Which one's your favorite?" the German asked.

"Power Girl," Mana answered without hesitation.

Asuka smiled with approval. "Good choice," she said. "You know what? I like you, Kirishima. You have a good head on your shoulders."

Hikari blinked, wondering at the new girl who had, apparently by sheer dumb luck, managed to say all the right things to get on Asuka's good side. Though Mana had no idea of it, having a conversation with Asuka about NERV related issues or the city's superwomen was like navigating a minefield; it wasn't exactly difficult to set the Second Child off, but Mana had avoided it entirely without even trying.

"You know," Hikari spoke up, "I think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship."

* * *

The end of the school day came a few hours later, and Mana headed home, feeling quite pleased with the experience overall.

"I'm home!" she called as she walked into her new house.

The auburn-haired girl was not surprised when she got no response from anywhere in the house. That day had been her mother's first one at her new job, after all.

Once certain that she was alone in the house, Mana sat down at the kitchen table and began to work on her homework. It was extremely simple by her standards, though rather dull, and she was soon finished with it. The moment that was out of the way, Mana went to the task of unpacking her things and arranging her room the way she wanted it. She did this until early evening, and then got to the job of making dinner.

Mana, like her mother, was a fairly proficient cook, but one who was used to rather…unorthodox methods. She was more comfortable cooking on a Bunsen burner than she was on a stove, but she still managed to produce a basic meal, _despite_ the relatively wide array of appliances at her disposal.

"I'm home!" Hazumi said just as Mana was putting the food on the table. "Oh, that smells good."

"How was work?" Mana asked.

"Not bad, though the setup there is very different from what I'm used to," Hazumi replied. "How was your first day at school?"

"Pretty good," Mana replied. "The Sensei's lectures are nothing short of painful, but I made a couple of friends today. Did you know that the EVA pilots go to my school?"

Hazumi blinked in surprise. Having worked for the company that tried to build a rival unit to the Evangelions, she had learned the open secret that NERV's anti-Angel system required teenage pilots to function. However, it had somehow never quite occurred to her that these pilots would go to school like normal children, or that her daughter might run into them.

"No, I didn't know that," Hazumi said. "Did you meet them?"

"I made friends with one of them," Mana replied, nodding. "A girl named Asuka. She actually has an engineering degree from a German university, but NERV makes her go to school anyway. I didn't expect I'd meet anyone at school that I could talk about advanced mechanical stuff with."

"That is a surprise," Hazumi said. "You didn't tell her about our little project, did you? It's not a good idea to let people know we have something like that just sitting in our basement."

"Of course I didn't tell her," Mana replied. "I know that we can't go advertising our project, Mom."

"Good," Hazumi said. "Anyway, I'm glad that you enjoyed your first day at school, Mana-chan."

The two of them continued to chat as they ate dinner and then cleaned up. Once this was done, they headed down to the basement where they began the task of setting up their workshop and unpacking the various pieces of their project.

"You know, sometimes I feel like a guy working on a car with his dad down here," Mana commented as the two of them struggled with the various heavy pieces.

"This is much more interesting than rebuilding some old hot rod," Hazumi scoffed.

"Well, yeah, I have to give you that," Mana said, palming some sweat off her forehead. Then she looked at the scattered pieces of machinery that now littered their basement. "You know, this is practically done, except for the final assembly, of course. What are we going to do when it's finished?"

"Find another project," Hazumi answered.

Mana rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean, Mom," she said. "What are we going to do with our project when it's done?"

Hazumi put a hand to her chin as she mused over the question. It wasn't something she had ever really given too much thought; working on the project had always been an end unto itself for her, since it allowed her to spend time with her daughter.

"I guess we could try and find a buyer, somehow, like the company found someone to buy the prototype infiltration suit," Hazumi said, "but let's not dwell on that. Come on, help me adjust this stabilizer here."

* * *

The next morning when Mana got to the school, she found a crowd of people just outside the grounds, wearing weird robes and holding picket signs. Cautiously approaching the group to get a better look, Mana saw that they all wore a symbol that looked like a yellow flame with lines of light radiating out from it.

Still taking care to keep her distance, Mana craned her neck to read some of the signs that the strange picketers carried.

"Dispel those who defer the Final Judgment!" read one.

"Cast out the Heretics!" demanded another.

"Accept Oblivion!" blared a third.

Mana stared at the group from across the street, not quite daring to approach them. "What in the world is going on here?" she muttered to herself.

"Hey, Mana," she heard someone say to her suddenly, causing her to jump.

She turned to see Asuka and Shinji standing behind her, not looking very disturbed by the bizarre gathering that was taking place right in front of their school.

"Hello, Asuka. Hi, Shinji," she greeted them. "Say, do you know what in the world is going on here?"

"The Light of the Divine is having one of their stupid protests by the school again," Asuka said, as though that explained everything.

"Light of the Divine?" Mana echoed dumbly.

"They're a cult, in case you couldn't guess as much from the goofy clothes," Asuka said. "There are a lot of cults in the city, mostly because some dummkoff in NERV decided it would be a good idea to name the giant monsters we're fighting 'Angels.' They come in all colors of crazy, but _this_ one thinks that the Angels are God's divine judgment and that we should just accept that and let them win."

"Oh," Mana said as the pieces began to fall into place. "So they come and protest at the school because you guys go here?"

"Yeah," Asuka said. "They can't get close to headquarters, and they've never tried this where we live before, maybe because they don't where that is, so they picket the school."

"They know where we live," Shinji put in. "They did this at the apartment once before you got here, Asuka. Misato got really mad, and, well, I don't know what she did, but they never came back."

Asuka nodded absently, her attention still on Mana. "Anyway, don't let them scare you," she said. "Section Two, that's the NERV bodyguard force, does a good job of keeping them from ever doing more than standing around and looking like idiots. It's pretty much the only thing Section Two is actually good at."

The redhead gestured, and Mana saw that a group of large men in black suits and sunglasses were standing by the main entrance to the school, keeping the cultists in check.

"Come on, you can go in with us if they freak you out," Asuka offered. "Section Two always makes doubly sure that they don't do anything to us."

"Thanks," Mana said, nodding.

True to Asuka's words, the vanguard of black suits became especially attentive to their task when the two EVA pilots approached. The cultists shouted and cursed at the Second and Third Children, but none of them dared to cross the line that Section Two had formed.

_I guess that Asuka was right,_ Mana thought. _These weirdoes seem like they're all bark and no bite._

Still, as she looked at the group of white-robed people, she couldn't prevent a little thread of fear from shooting through her heart.

* * *

The school day eventually started just as it had the previous day, with everyone paying no mind to the cultists who remained just outside of the boundaries of the school. Apparently, the Light of the Divine showed up frequently enough for everyone to view them as just a routine annoyance. Mana, however, couldn't get over the knowledge that they were out there.

(So, what do you think about those guys outside?) Mana asked Shinji after getting his attention again.

The Third Child considered for a moment before replying. (They're kind of creepy.)

('Creepy' is putting it mildly!) Mana said. (I'm surprised that you can be so calm, knowing that a group of people who believe you're committing some horrible sin is outside.)

(It's not the first time they've done this.) Shinji replied. (They never really do much, anyway.)

(So they're harmless?) Mana asked, not quite daring to believe that a group of zealots like the Light of the Divine clearly were _could_ be harmless.

(They always have been in the past.) Shinji answered.

Somehow, this answer didn't fill Mana with confidence.

Yet despite all of the new girl's anxiety, the Light of the Divine eventually lost interest in standing outside the school and waving their signs when nobody was really paying them any attention. The robed protestors walked off in ones and twos, until only a pathetically small number of them remained. And when this group of die-hards _realized_ that their numbers had become pathetically small, they left the area with as much dignity as they could muster.

Apparently, everyone was right to view the Light of the Divine as nothing more than an annoyance. Mana felt herself relax as she watched the cultists disperse through the windows of the school building, and by lunch, she had all but forgotten about them. When Asuka invited her to come along on a trip to the mall with Hikari after school, Mana quickly said yes.

* * *

Hazumi Kirishima stretched as she got out of her car and headed toward her new home, not much looking forward to continuing the job of getting the place in order. It was amazing to her how small the house had seemed until the task of turning it into a home had stretched out before her.

She shook her head, knowing that she really couldn't complain. For a while there, she'd been afraid that she and her daughter would be living out of her car soon. Her new job had been nothing short of a lifesaver.

Unlocking her door, Hazumi walked inside and called, "I'm home!"

No answer came, and Hazumi remembered that Mana had called her and said she'd be spending some time at the mall after school with her new friends.

_It's good to see that she's fitting in so quickly,_ Hazumi decided as she headed to the kitchen to start on dinner, trying to decide what to cook. _Tuna, maybe?_

Opening the refrigerator, she began to root around inside to see what ingredients were available to her. However, she wasn't at it for very long before the doorbell rang, pulling her away from her task.

"I'm coming!" she called as she headed back to the door. "I'm coming!"

Opening the door, Hazumi found herself confronted with five large men, all of whom were wearing flowing white robes that had symbols which looked like a yellow flame with lines of light radiating out from it on the chests.

"Dr. Kirishima?" the one in front asked.

The leader of this bizarre group was a big man with chiseled features that made him look like he'd been carved out of granite rather than born like normal humans.

"Yes," Hazumi said. "Who are you?"

"I am a servant of the Light," the man answered. "And you… you are a vile and arrogant woman who builds machines that are meant to defeat the judgment of the Divine."

"I don't do that anymore," Hazumi said, trying not to let her mounting fear of these men show. "I stopped working on anti-Angel weapon systems when I was laid off by Hokkaido Heavy Industries. Good day, gentlemen."

She tried to close the door in their faces, but the leader reached out and grabbed hold of it. He was far too strong for Hazumi to even think about try to overpower him.

"Once a sinner, always a sinner," the man hissed.

Suddenly, the misgivings that she'd had about coming to the city of Tokyo-3 didn't seem silly at all.

* * *

"Whew," Mana breathed as she got off the train, carrying a shopping bag with her purchases in it along with her.

She had had a lot of fun with Asuka and Hikari, but the three of them had effectively lapped the huge mall two or three times, and her feet were killing her by this point. Plus, they hadn't had any guys along to carry the bags.

Still, she'd picked up some really cute outfits, along with some posters for her new room. So despite her weariness, Mana was in a good mood.

_Just hope Mom doesn't mind that I was out for so long,_ she thought as she approached her new home.

However, as she got closer, she noticed that the door to her home had been carelessly left open, and the minor worries about her mother's reaction quickly dissolved. Mana jogged up to the porch, forgetting all about how much her feet hurt and just hoping that there was some mundane explanation for her front door being left open to flap in the wind.

Unfortunately, the closer she got, the worse the situation appeared. Not only had the door been left open, but the potted plant and small table that sat just behind the door had both been knocked over, as if in a struggle. Her mother's purse, which Hazumi was already making a habit of leaving on said table, had also been knocked to the floor, and its contents were scattered everywhere.

"Oh, God," Mana breathed as what had transpired became inescapably clearer and clearer.

For a moment, the girl just stood there, feeling helpless, sick, and even a little incredulous. This sort of thing was only supposed to happen to other people, important and powerful people, wealthy people. Mere weeks ago, she and her mother had been wondering how they'd make ends meet. This sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen to them!

Then, she spotted a square of white cloth that was sitting on the floor just inside the house. Something had been written on it in black marker.

Mana bent down and snatched it up, quickly reading the short, chilling message on it.

"Death to those who forge the weapons of Cain."

All of a sudden, the whole world took on a very surreal quality for Mana. Part of her very much expected to wake up at any moment now. Her mother couldn't have been kidnapped or possibly even killed for something she didn't even _do_ anymore. It was absurd.

But Mana didn't wake up, so with her suddenly numb fingers, she turned over the square of cloth, finding a symbol that looked like a flame with lines of light radiating out from it on the back.

Feeling almost dizzy, she put down her shopping bag, walked into the kitchen, and called the police.

"Tokyo-3 Police Department," an officer answered.

Somehow, hearing another human voice caused the precarious state of nearly preternatural calm that had gripped her to abruptly shatter. "You have to help me!" Mana shouted into the phone, sounding a bit crazed even to her own ears. "My mother's been kidnapped! The Light of the Divine has taken her!"

* * *

Some time later, the police arrived and immediately began to photograph the front porch and small entrance hall of the Kirishima residence. Mana watched this dully until one of the officers walked up to her, identified himself as Akira Ogata, and then asked her what had happened.

"The Light of the Divine has kidnapped my mother," Mana answered simply, wondering why they were wasting time with all this when it was obvious who the culprits were.

"That's quite an accusation," Ogata said calmly. "Why are you so certain that this religious sect is responsible?"

Warning alarms immediately went off in Mana's head at the cop's use of the phrase "religious sect" to describe the Light of the Divine. Everyone else she'd met simply referred to the group as a cult, which was what they obviously were. Either the officer felt the need to be politically correct about everyone, or the group had his sympathies.

Still, the man couldn't possibly deny her evidence, could he?

"I found this," Mana said, handing the piece of the cloth with the cult's emblem to the man, "just inside the house."

Ogata took the cloth and inspected it closely. "You really shouldn't have touched this," he said. "You probably contaminated the evidence beyond use."

"What do you mean?" Mana asked, her ire rising despite herself. "It has their symbol on it! They did it, and they want everyone to know they did it! Can't you go to wherever it is they meet and get my mother?"

The officer glared down at her. "Look, kid, assuming that the Light of the Divine _did_ do this, they probably wouldn't have taken your mother to their little headquarters. And even if they did, we can't just go barging in there with so little evidence."

"'So little evidence'?" Mana echoed incredulously. "They left their calling card at the scene of the crime!"

"The Light of the Divine have a _lot_ of enemies in this city, people who don't agree with their message," Ogata said sternly. "This wouldn't be the first time someone decided to frame them for a crime. Looking at them would probably be just a waste of time."

"So because there's evidence here that they did it, you've concluded that they didn't do it?" Mana snapped. "You're not going to investigate them at all? Are you insane?"

The officer glared down at her. "Your mother doesn't work for a company that tries to make weapons to use against the Angels any longer, correct?"

"Well, yeah," Mana admitted, wilting slightly, "but—"

"Then what's the logic in them striking at her now?" Ogata asked.

"What's the logic in wanting the end of the world to come?" Mana countered. "They left their symbol at the scene of the crime! It's obvious that you need to investigate them!"

"Look, don't tell me how to do my job, okay?" Ogata growled. "It's not as simple as you might think."

Mana balled her hands into fists and very nearly screamed at the man that he was being a complete moron. However, she checked herself at the last moment. Somehow, it seemed like the crazy cult had this guy in their pocket, and for all she knew, the entire T3PD could be in there along with him. Obviously, the Light of the Divine was far more powerful than their rather pathetic protest that morning had led her to believe. To argue further with Ogata would be about as effective as trying to knock down a brick wall by beating her head against it.

"Fine," Mana growled.

Ogata asked her a few more questions, and Mana answered, but her mind, her brilliant prodigy's mind, was elsewhere, trying to figure out what she could do now that it had become clear that the police would be of no help.

Her options were distressingly few. She didn't even know where her mother was, because Ogata had made one point to her that was quite true. The Light of the Divine had probably taken her mother someplace other than their own public headquarters, and that could be just about anywhere.

If she couldn't even _find_ her mother, how could she possibly orchestrate a rescue?

Eventually, the police packed up and left, having stayed for about an hour. Mana was no expert on the subject, but this seemed like a very short period of time for the police to investigate the scene of a kidnapping. However, the police's cursory job of searching for clues had kept them out of the basement, something for which Mana was grudgingly grateful.

"All right, we're done here," Ogata said. "I can offer you police protection tonight, if you'd like."

"No, thank you," Mana said coldly.

If this experience was anything to go by, such "protection" would likely gift wrap her for the cultists, if they wanted her.

Ogata shrugged. "It's your call," he said. "Where the hell is your father, by the way?"

"Dead," Mana answered bluntly.

When Mana told people this, the usual response was embarrassment at having brought it up, or sympathy. Ogata looked annoyed.

"If you've got no guardian, I'm supposed to turn you over to Child Services," Ogata said.

"That won't be necessary," Mana said as forcefully as she could, doing her best to hide her fear.

She'd never have a prayer at saving her mother if this corrupt excuse for a cop decided to toss her into the system and force her to spend the next several hours at some government building, waiting for a foster family to take her in or something.

Ogata hesitated, and Mana thought she saw a brief flicker of humanity in his eyes. He sighed. "Look, I guess I can let you spend the night in your own home, but I can't just turn a blind eye to a minor living alone forever," he said. "I'll call Child Services on Monday. It'll give you a little while. Just promise not to get yourself into trouble by then, okay?"

Mana nodded.

"Good," Ogata said, then turned to the other officers. "Okay, boys, let's head out!"

The police quickly left the scene, leaving Mana all alone. Running her hands through her short hair, the girl walked back into the house. The police had at least had the decency to right the plant and the little table that had been knocked over in the struggle between her mother and the cultists. Her mother's purse had been set on the table, along with all the stuff that had been knocked out of it.

Mana stood there, looking at it for a long, long moment, wondering if her mother would ever put her purse there herself again. She didn't think the cultists had much motive to keep her mother alive for very long, but then again, Mana didn't know why they hadn't just killed her on the spot, so perhaps there was still some time, and reason to hope.

After some unknown amount of time spent staring at her mother's things, Mana suddenly noticed that something was missing. Hazumi's cell phone wasn't among the objects that had been knocked from her purse. Frowning, Mana checked within the purse itself, then she searched the floor. However, the phone was nowhere to be found.

_Maybe Mom had it in her pocket,_ Mana thought. _Maybe Mom _still_ has it in her pocket._

With most cellular phones, that wouldn't really have helped Mana. However, Hazumi had modified the cheap old phone she'd purchased for herself, adding in a GPS chip to give it the capabilities of a much more expensive and cutting-edge device.

Mana, no slouch with technology herself, could trace that GPS chip, assuming that the phone was turned on.

Nearly tripping over her own feet in her haste, Mana rushed to her mother's computer, which was another advanced device that had been upgraded from a low-quality one. They had considered selling it when times had gotten rough. Now, Mana was incredibly glad that they'd held onto the thing.

Tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for it to boot up, Mana felt as though she might explode from the sheer nervous anticipation coursing through her. If this didn't work, she didn't think she'd be able to come up with a Plan B.

Finally, the machine was ready for action. Mana's fingers blurred across the keyboard as she ran the relevant programs.

"Please, let that damn phone be on and still with my mother," Mana muttered. "Please."

As though in answer to her pleas, the screen suddenly displayed a map with a flashing red arrow pointing to a specific location. Mana let out a loud whoop, then quickly leaned in to see exactly where the phone (and hopefully her mother) was. The arrow indicated a warehouse in the city's industrial sector.

"Okay, I know where she is," Mana said, quickly standing up. "Now…"

She trailed off, suddenly realizing that there was no 'step two' to this plan. Just because she knew where her mother was, it didn't mean that Mana knew how to rescue her.

_There has to be a way,_ Mana thought, rubbing her forehead as though that might coax her brain into releasing an idea.

While at her previous job of designing military hardware, Hazumi Kirishima had become friends with a number of soldiers. Mana had little doubt that a mere handful of them would be able to take down a small army of cultists, and that many of them would be willing to help.

However, they were scattered all over Japan. It would take days to gather them in Tokyo-3, at least, and Mana seriously doubted that her mother had days.

She supposed that she could call back the police, but she had a sneaking suspicion that they'd claim red tape was holding them back and then warn the cultists that they needed to move and smash Hazumi's phone. Mana didn't want to take that risk.

Of course, Mana supposed that there was a third option. But no, that was insane, crazy. She couldn't _possibly_ do that. She just wasn't the type.

"But what other choice do I have?" she wondered aloud, her voice sounding strangely hollow to her own ears.

_This is crazy,_ she decided, as she headed down to the basement.

* * *

Author's Notes: Those of you who aren't big DC fans are probably confused as heck by the title of this fic, given that the Kryptonian spot is already taken, while those of you who are will probably get it. It'll become clear next chapter when the Kirishima's mysterious project is unveiled. Until then, I've finally managed to be mysterious with one of these.

By the way, in case anyone's wondering, the Light of the Divine are my own creation and not really based off of anything from comics. I just realized that I'd probably have need for some minor villains who aren't affiliated with NERV and actually thought them up before I ever even started Mana's story.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well. Now for some fun.

* * *

Omakes

Shinji is not suave

"Hey, Shinji," Mana greeted the Third Child one morning.

"Hello, Mana," Shinji replied politely.

"Hey, I have a question for you," Mana said. "Did you know that the school has a chat room client that practically everybody uses while Sensei rambles on about the world before Second Impact?"

"Uh, yeah," Shinji admitted.

"Then why didn't you tell me so you could use that, instead of writing messages to each other in really large text on our laptop screens?" Mana asked.

"Well…"

"Is it because you feared that if I knew that, I'd start chatting with Asuka and Hikari and ignore you?" Mana asked eagerly. "Were you jealously protecting your time with the beautiful newcomer to the school?"

Cherry blossoms suddenly surrounded the girl, and the world around her turned a curious shade of pink. The air around her grew sparkly.

"Uh, actually, it's because I'm really not good with that sort of thing," Shinji said. "The last time I used the chat I accidentally told everyone I was an EVA pilot."

The cherry blossoms abruptly shriveled up and died, the sparkles around Mana vanished, and the world went from pink to a rather gloomy shade of gray.

"Oh," Mana said. "I see."

With that she walked off, her shoulders slumped, leaving a rather regretful Shinji behind.

Kensuke picked this moment to walk up to the Third Child, and offer the kind of comfort that only a true friend can.

"Man, Ikari, you suck with women," he said.

"Shut up, Kensuke," Shinji grumbled.

* * *

The thing in the basement is…

Of course, Mana supposed that there was a third option. But no, that was insane, crazy. She couldn't _possibly_ do that. She just wasn't the type.

"But what other choice do I have?" she wondered aloud, her voice sounding strangely hollow to her own ears.

_This is crazy,_ she decided, as she headed to her room to change before going to the basement.

Once in her room, Mana shed her school uniform, replacing it was a black and red bikini top, short black shorts, and a scarf. Then she headed down to the basement to start up the spiral generator.

"All right, Lagann!" Mana said. "It's time to kick some ass!"

The giant robot exploded out of the basement, destroying most of the house in the process as it leapt into the air.

"Somehow," Mana said to herself, "I think this is just what this world needs!"

* * *

We don't need no stinkin' super powers

She trailed off, suddenly realizing that there was no 'step two' to this plan. Just because she knew where her mother was, it didn't mean that Mana knew how to rescue her.

_There has to be a way,_ Mana thought, rubbing her forehead as though that might coax her brain into releasing an idea.

While at her previous job of designing military hardware, Hazumi Kirishima had become friends with a number of soldiers. Mana had little doubt that a mere handful of them would be able to take down a small army of cultists, and that many of them would be willing to help.

However, they were scattered all over Japan. It would probably take days to gather them in Tokyo-3, at least, and Mana seriously doubted that her mother had days.

_Maybe I should check to see if anyone's close,_ Mana thought. _I shouldn't throw this idea away so quickly._

Mana was pleasantly surprised by what she discovered.

_

* * *

_

"Come on, come on, where are you guys?" Mana wondered aloud some time later as she paced nervously back and forth through her house.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Mana quickly ran to open it, relieved at who she saw. "Thanks so much for coming guys," she said. "I knew that you'd be able to help me, and when I heard you were in Tokyo-2, I had to ask for help."

"Hey, when we heard that your mother was in danger, we had to come," said Sergeant Franklin Rock. "Hazumi was always good to me whenever we crossed paths."

"Indeed," agreed Slade Wilson, also known as Deathstroke, his face hidden behind his black and brown helmet. "Unlike several others, your mother was always fair with me while I was in the UN military."

"I always like it when I can use violence to perform my good deed for the decade," said Floyd Lawton, who was more commonly known as Deadshot. "So I figured I'd do this job for the nice lady _pro bono_."

"And I—" began a man with an eye patch.

"Wait a minute," Mana interrupted him. "Nick Fury?!"

"Yes, that's me," he said.

"Uh, you're in entirely the wrong universe," Mana pointed out.

"Oh, am I? Damn, I am so tired of those confusing mother &!# signs on the mother &!# inter-dimensional freeway!" he roared as he stalked off.

"So, I'm guessing that was the Ultimate version of Fury, then?" Mana asked.

"What tipped you off?" Slade asked. "The rant, or the fact that he looks like Sam Jackson?"

"Never mind that now," Mana said sheepishly. "We have to save my mother and make those crazy cultists pay!"

Sergeant Rock took the safety off his machine gun. "Just tell us where, Mana."

* * *

Meanwhile, in a warehouse on the other side of the city, a group of men in white robes all simultaneously wet themselves.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter One:** Enhanced Interrogation

"Comfortable, Kirishima?" the leader of the cultists asked as Hazumi was tied down to a chair by two of his subordinates.

"No," Hazumi replied bluntly.

"Good," the leader said with a smirk. "Now, you are going to tell me all about the advances you and your team made in the field of robotics while you were working on the Jet Alone."

"What?" Hazumi frowned. "But, I thought that you people kidnapped me for the 'sin' of making anti-Angel weapons. Why would you want to know how I did it?"

"It is not your place to question why, Kirishima-san," the man replied. "Let's just say that the Light has use for this knowledge."

"Oh, bull. No damn cult has use for advanced robotics technology, not even one as big as the Light of the Divine. You don't have the facilities, the materials, or the expertise to actually build anything. The Light could get a whole lot more for their time and effort with more low tech methods and weapons," she said, eyeing the leader of the group of kidnappers shrewdly. "But that doesn't concern you, does it?"

The leader of the "cultists" smiled down at Hazumi.

"Very astute, Kirishima-san," said Captain Chiron, the leader of NERV's Section Two. "You're as brilliant as they say. However, I'd warn you against making further deductions. Knowledge is a dangerous thing for a woman in your position. The more you know, the less chance there is that you get to go home at the end of this."

Hazumi glared hatefully up at Chiron and said nothing, even as inside she quailed with terror.

"So," Chiron said, "you can either make this easy on yourself and tell us everything you know about robots, or I'll have to resort to some unpleasant measures."

As he finished saying this, Chiron pulled a sheet of cloth off a covered tray that sat on a small table next to Hazumi's chair. The scientist's eyes widened as she saw the various wicked looking instruments that he revealed.

"Well, Kirishima-san?" Chiron asked. "It's entirely your call."

The larger part of Hazumi's mind screamed at her to just spill her guts right then and there. However, another part of her was obstinately against it. What she knew could be used to build some very dangerous weapons. Indeed, only the knowledge of how to make nuclear bombs was more potentially deadly. Not only that, but if the trade secrets she knew became common knowledge, she would be worth significantly less to companies. After finally having provided for her daughter in the way she'd always wanted to, Hazumi was incredibly loathe to risk returning to near poverty.

"Go to hell," she said.

Chiron sighed. "Fine. The hard way, then."

* * *

As Mana descended the stairs that led to her basement, the only thing she could think was that she was insane to choose such a course of action. While she had always expected that she would one day _test_ what she had her mother had been working on, she had never once thought she'd end up _using_ it against actual hostiles.

She reached her destination and just stopped, looking over the various pieces of what her mother had quietly taken from the failing Hokkaido Heavy Industries, and what the two Kirishima women had been working on since then. It looked different than it had that morning, more ominous.

_This is nuts!_ Mana thought, feeling a wave of nausea suddenly sweep over her. _I can't do this! I'm not a solider or something! I'm a fourteen-year-old girl!_

She took a step back from the suddenly frightening pieces of the project, desperately going over the alternatives. She could just go upstairs, call the police, and tell them that she'd discovered her mother's whereabouts. They'd _have_ to go and rescue her then.

Wouldn't they?

Her mind suddenly went back to Officer Ogata of the T3PD. There was utterly no doubt in Mana's mind that the man was in the pocket of the cultists who had kidnapped her mother. The existence of one corrupt cop didn't necessarily mean the entire police force was similarly lacking in integrity, but…

_But what if they are?_ Mana thought. _If they are, and you call them up and tell them what you found, you'll be throwing Mom's life away!_

_That_ thought hit Mana like a punch in the gut. She didn't have anyone else in the whole world besides her mother, not even the stereotypical eccentric aunt who lived in another country. If something were to happen to her mother—the woman who always struggled so hard to provide for Mana—then she would be completely, profoundly alone.

Like it or not, Mana had to chose between trusting a police force that had given her no reason to trust them that day, or actually using the project she and her mother had been working on.

"I'm insane," Mana declared as she moved forward, away from the stairs that led up and out of the basement.

Much as she would have liked to move out right then before her resolve left her, that wasn't an option for Mana. There were still a few tweaks and touches she needed to perform before the project could actually be used. Mana went through these in twenty minutes, each of which felt about an hour long, making the urge to race through her task almost irresistible.

_Make haste slowly,_ Mana told herself as she worked. The phrase was one of her mother's favorite sayings, and according to Hazumi Kirishima, it had been first been spoken by an ancient Western emperor. Mana sincerely hoped that she'd be able to hear her mother say that again in the future.

Finally, it was ready, and though Mana was now in more of a rush than ever, she allowed herself a brief moment to look over the final results.

Hokkaido Heavy Industries had never gotten around to giving an official name to this particular side project; the whole company having been far too focused on the Jet Alone at the time. To Mana and her mother, it had always just been "the project", but before Hazumi had quietly claimed the thing, most people at HHI referred to it as the Exosuit.

While this name was technically accurate, it really didn't do the project justice in Mana's opinion. The thing was a nearly seven-foot-tall metal suit of power armor, designed to make a lone infantry man into a walking tank.

Had the design ever entered into production (something that became increasingly unlikely as the prototype was developed further and it became more and more apparent how high the cost per unit would be), the internal mechanisms of the suits would have allowed for soldiers roughly between 5'9" and 6'5'' to wear and operate them.

Fortunately, since Mana had been one of the two people who'd completed the prototype, it had been modified so she could use it, despite her height being less than 5'9''.

With the aid of a short ladder, Mana carefully climbed into the armor's legs, feeling the internal mechanisms wrapping themselves around her own, much smaller legs. It was a rather disturbing sensation, but she was in too deep to stop over such a little thing.

The torso and arms of the armor was suspended above her by a system of chains and pulleys that she and her mother installed. Mana slowly lowered it down over herself, awkwardly performing the task that really should have been done by another person. The mechanisms of this part of the armor also adjusted themselves to her frame, and once they had, Mana closed a series of heavy clasps that connected the two parts of the armor. Finally, she attached the helmet, and she was officially all suited up.

Once the armor was fully put together at last, all its systems began booting up. A HUD appeared before Mana's eyes, informing her that all systems were nominal.

There was no mirror in the Kirishima basement, but Mana was able to find a fairly well polished piece of metal in which to study her reflection. There was utterly no way to tell that it was her inside the armor. Not only was the suit several feet taller than she was, but it had been designed with male users in mind, and that showed in the shape of the thing. Though technically not having any definitive sexual characteristic, the suit's wide shoulders and V-shaped torso definitely suggested masculinity, as did the shapes of muscles that had been molded into the strong but flexible alloy the suit was composed from. There was also nothing feminine about the face that had been sculpted on the front of helmet, and the utter lack of anything resembling hair on top of the helmet didn't exactly girl up the suit, either.

_It's for the best, I suppose,_ Mana decided. _Anyone besides Mom knowing that this is me would just complicate things. So long as I keep my mouth shut, no one will ever even guess that I'm a girl, let alone figure out it's me specifically. Now, I'm suited up. All I have to do is…stop some crazy cultists who are probably armed and rescue my mother._

Mana suddenly felt sick again, and while she wasn't about to chicken out now, she still felt an irrational yet irresistible need to better her odds a little further. Looking around the basement, her eyes fell upon the large hammer she and her mother had struggled with upon moving in, and she picked it up, finding that doing so was no challenge whatsoever with the suit's hydraulics increasing her strength.

_Well, guess I have no excuse for any more hesitation,_ she thought. _At least the suit's functioning properly…so far._

There was a short flight of concrete steps which led to a door straight out of the house, and Mana took these, fearing the damage the weight of the suit would do if she attempted to climb the wooden stairs that led to the kitchen. Once she was outside, however, she felt like she was at a loss.

_How am I supposed to get from here to the industrial sector? Take a bus?_ She wondered.

Then she recalled one of the suit's features, and nearly smacked herself in the forehead. "I'm really bad at this super hero thing," she groaned.

Inside the suit, there was a button by each of her feet. Using her big toes, Mana depressed them both.

Instantly, jets ignited within the boots of her armor, soon lifting her off the ground.

"W-Whoa!" Mana exclaimed, briefly flailing her arms about before she got used to the admittedly rather terrifying sensation, though there was no need for it; the suit's automatic flight stabilizers would prevent any unfortunate accidents.

"Okay, jet boosters appear to be functioning perfectly," Mana said to herself, trying to calm herself down by acting like all this was just a test run for the suit. "Now to experiment at higher elevations."

She pressed down harder on the buttons in the boots, and instantly Mana went soaring upwards, high above the roof of her home. The view of the city from that elevation was breathtaking, but Mana was too preoccupied with hoping that the jets didn't fail to take it in.

When she didn't immediately go plunging to her demise, Mana realized that she now needed to head to the warehouse where her mother was being kept. After taking a moment to orient herself, she took off in the direction of the city's industrial sector.

_Speed is good. Obviously drag from wind resistance wasn't as bad as we expected it to be,_ Mana thought as she went, keeping her mind focused on the task of analyzing the armor's performance.

It wasn't long before she found herself hovering above her destination, and the time for pretending that she was testing the armor was over; now it was do or die time.

_I really wish I hadn't thought that,_ Mana decided as she looked down at her target and tried to throw off the crippling fear that was gripping her.

_Come on, Mana, you can do this!_ She told herself. _It's not like you'll be the first girl to do this sort of thing. Think about Power Girl. You get to be like her. You get to be the other Girl of Steel. God knows you look the part. Well…the "steel" part, not so much the "girl" part._

This thought actually caused her to smile slightly behind the helmet she was wearing, and it even emboldened her somewhat. Clutching onto this small shred of courage, Mana began to descend.

* * *

"You see, Kirishima-san, I told you that you should have gone with the easy way," Chiron remarked as he wrote down the latest pieces of information Hazumi had told him. "It would have been so much quicker and easier on everyone if you'd just cooperated."

Hazumi could only groan in response as her head lolled about lazily from side to side, her mind lost in a fog of agony.

Chiron checked his wristwatch. "Time to report in," he observed, then turned to his underlings. "Keep on eye on her and wait for me to get back."

This said, Chiron turned and departed for another room of the warehouse where he'd set up the equipment necessary to transmit everything they'd learned so far back to NERV.

The moment he was gone, one of the remaining Section Two men nudged one of his colleagues with an elbow. "Hey, Gao, what do you say we get all the rest of the information from this bitch while the boss is talking to base?"

Gao frowned. "How the hell do you plan to do that, Li?"

Li snorted. "It'll be a piece of cake. Chiron's being way too gentle. I can make her squeal in minutes," he said, producing a black jack from inside his jacket.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Gao said.

Li shook his head. "That's why you'll never get that promotion, Gao. You're just not willing to show any initiative," he said, approaching Hazumi's form.

* * *

"What you've found so far is helpful, but she knows more. I know for a fact that she does."

"I know, sir," Chiron told the Commander. "I intend to get all of it before we're done."

"Why didn't you just kidnap the daughter, as well?" Gendo asked. "Surely Kirishima would have talked sooner if you'd threatened her daughter."

"She wasn't at the house when we picked up her mother," Chiron answered. "Besides, I don't like involving kids."

"I have no time for sentimentalities," Gendo said. "I'm only interested in results."

"And you'll get them, sir," Chiron vowed. "By the way, we've had Kirishima here for a while now. How's the situation with the police?"

"They've been ordered not to actually pursue this," Gendo said. "And in any case, they'd have no idea where to look for you unless you left them some clue."

"Which I did not," Chiron said. "Thank you, sir. I'll call in again in an hour, or when I have all the rest of the information. Whichever one comes first. Chiron out."

With that, Chiron closed up his cell phone and slipped it back into his pocket. Then he closed and picked up the laptop he'd used to transmit the information he'd gotten to the MAGI and headed back to the room where Hazumi was bound.

The moment he opened the door, Chiron heard a loud _crack!_ and he knew that something had gone terribly wrong. Dropping the laptop to the floor, he rushed over to where his prisoner was kept, drawing his pistol as he did so.

He found one of his underlings standing before Kirishima with a black jack in his hand. A large trail of blood was oozing down her head from a wound in her scalp.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Chiron demanded.

"Just trying to get more information out of her, sir," Li said, turning to face his boss.

Chiron narrowed his eyes, and for a moment, an intense silence fell.

Then the chief of Section Two changed his grip on his gun, grabbing it by the barrel, and swung the weapon, striking Li with the butt of the pistol right on the side of his head. The man went collapsing to the floor.

"You _stupid_ bastard!" Chiron roared. "That is _not_ how you force information out of someone! You're supposed to _hurt_ them, not _injure_ them, dumbass!"

Chiron immediately began to examine the wound of Hazumi's head. He winced as he got a better look at it. "Christ, you've _at least_ given her a concussion," he told Li. "How the hell did you think she could tell us anything if you damn near spilled her brains all over the floor?"

"I…I'm sorry, boss," Li stammered. "I…"

"You what?" Chiron demanded. "What did you do or think that could possibly make up for this huge screw up?"

"I…"

_Bam!_

The loud noise instantly caused Chiron to cease raging at his underling, as all the Section Two men turned to look toward the source of the sound. It had come from the large main door of the warehouse, which was now heavily dented inwards in a way it had not been before.

"What the hell?" Gao breathed.

"The cops?" Li wondered.

"No," Chiron said. "Commander said he'd made sure they wouldn't come after us."

"Then what?" Gao asked.

_Bam!_ The dent in the metal doors grew larger, and the group of men realized that it was unlikely the doors would withstand another strike.

"I don't know, and I don't want to know," Chiron declared. "Let's get the hell out of—"

_BAM!_

With one final strike, the metal of the doors finally tore, forming a sizable hole. A single, armored hand reached into the gap and pulled back the metal like it was no more difficult than peeling an orange, expanding the hole and allowing the hand's owner entrance.

That owner happened to be a huge figure that was armored from head to toe and was holding an enormous hammer in his left hand. The concrete of the floor cracked beneath his feet as he walked slowly toward them.

"What the hell is that?!" Gao exclaimed.

"One of Kirishima's friends, most likely," Chiron said, his voice tight with stiffly controlled panic. "Shoot him!"

The Section Two men didn't hesitate, immediately drawing their guns and firing. The bullets all bounced off the thick armor with loud _pting!_ noises.

"This isn't working, chief!" Li shouted as their guns all clicked empty, and the metallic figure continued to advance toward them, seemingly as inexorable as death.

"I can see that, moron!" Chiron snapped.

"Then what—_ah!_" Li shouted as Chiron actually picked him up and flung him at the metal monster, hoping that would slow down their enemy for a moment.

The Section Two man crashed into the armored warrior dead on, but it like crashing into a brick wall. The guy didn't move, but Li experienced a whole new form of pain as he collapsed to the floor.

Blinking away stars, Li looked up at the mechanized warrior, who was looking down at him. The Section Two agent saw the guy raise his right arm, which had something that looked an awful lot like a weapon mounted on it.

"Oh, shit," Li groaned, closing his eyes.

The weapon on the armor's forearm fired four times, but the strangest thing happened. Li wasn't feeling any pain. Tentatively, he opened his eyes and saw what had been done to him.

Four pieces of metal had been fired through the sleeves of his shirt and pants and then into the floor. He was unharmed, but he was also completely pinned to the concrete below him.

"Gao, get Kirishima!" Chiron shouted. "We're getting out of here."

"Yes, boss!" Gao shouted, rushing over to the bound woman.

As Chiron had expected, the armored warrior broke out into a run at this point, rushing toward the hostage. A metal-covered fist crashed into the side of Gao's face, instantly knocking him down to the floor, and the Section Two man was soon pinned to the ground the same way Li was.

Then the armored man turned to face Chiron…just in time to see the chief of Section Two sending a heavy iron hook that was suspended from the warehouse ceiling at him. There was a loud metallic ringing sound as the piece of heavy equipment hit the armored soldier squarely in the soldier, knocking him down to the ground.

Chiron's triumphant smirk melted, however, when the metal man immediately began to try and get up. He was having some trouble in that regard, because the shoulder of the armor had been visibly damaged, but other than that, he didn't even seemed to be phased.

As Chiron watched, the armored man managed to flip himself over so he was laying on his stomach rather than his back, making it easier for him to rise with only one fully functional arm.

Chiron quickly ran through his options, knowing that he had only a few seconds available to him for deciding upon a course of action. His choices as he saw it were to run the hell away while he still could, or to reload his weapon and use Kirishima as a hostage.

He hated hostage situations; they were almost always messy, and they rarely if ever ended well for the hostage taker. Chiron quickly picked up the laptop he'd dropped and then ran, disappearing from the warehouse without looking back once.

* * *

_Damn it, he got away,_ Mana thought as she finally managed to get back to her feet.

It had taken every ounce of her self-control to not start yelling at the group of creeps, which would have ruined the disguise the armor effectively served as. Now it looked like one of the monsters would escape scot-free.

Mana was sorely tempted to go after him, but she hadn't donned the suit and come to this place to deal out punishment. She'd come for her mother.

Walking over to where Hazumi sat bound, Mana winced as she saw the dark red blood that was oozing down the side of her head.

_Oh, Mom,_ Mana thought. _Please be okay._

Attaching the hammer she carried to a magnetic plate on the back of the armor, Mana reached out and used the enhanced strength the suit gave her to break her mother's bonds. Then she took the woman into her arms as gently as she could.

_I'm going to get you help, Mom,_ Mana vowed silently. _Just hang on for a little while longer._

Exiting the warehouse, Mana ignited the jets within her boots and took to the sky, in search of the nearest hospital.

* * *

Yumi yawned as she walked through the halls of Tokyo-3 Memorial Hospital. Who was it that thought becoming a doctor was a good idea again? Surely not her. She never could have been so naïve to have not realized that becoming a doctor first required becoming an intern, which itself required utterly grueling hours and being a slave to the real doctors.

_Well, at least I _finally_ get to go home and sleep for a few hours before the whole process starts again,_ she thought as she headed for the doors.

Yumi avoided the hospital's front entrance, knowing that Dr. Tanaka, that jerk, would probably be there to intercept her and prevent her from getting any rest. Honestly, that man wouldn't be happy until all the interns were so exhausted that they were hallucinating.

Ducking out through the entrance that was used by the ambulances, Yumi was almost home free when she saw the most bizarre thing.

_Am _I_ hallucinating, or is a guy in some kind of crazy metal armor really putting some injured woman down on a gurney?_ She wondered.

The armored figure looked up at Yumi, and though she really couldn't see the guy's real face because of the helmet that completely covered his head, she still somehow sensed that he wore a pleading expression.

It was enough to kick her into action. She rushed forward and grabbed the gurney, then began pushing it into the hospital. "We've got an injured woman here!"

_Never a dull moment,_ Yumi thought.

* * *

Soon after Mana had delivered her mother to the hospital, she returned home and shed the armor. Her first order of business after that was to make her way to a payphone and call up the police to give them an anonymous tip to check out the warehouse where her mother had been held. After that was done, her instincts screamed at her to rush back to Tokyo-3 Memorial Hospital, this time as herself, to find out how her mother was doing.

The only problem was that she wasn't supposed to know that her mother was there. If she showed up now, it would probably raise a few very difficult questions. So, with great reluctance, she returned home, then waited to receive a call from the hospital or the police about her mother.

To try and make the interminable wait seem less arduous, Mana began to work on the armor to pass the time. The damage to the shoulder wasn't too bad, but it required a lot of work to fix properly.

_The armor around the joints need strengthening_, Mana mused to herself, and began to figure out ways of doing just that without compromising mobility, mostly because she didn't want to think about the way the blood had been running down the side of her mother's head.

Finally, at long last, Mana heard the sound of the phone ringing. She rushed to answer it, nearly dropping the receiver in her haste. "Hello?" she said.

"Hello," a professional sounding woman's voice replied. "I'm with Tokyo-3 Memorial Hospital. Is this the Kirishima residence?"

"Yes," Mana said, her heart jack hammering inside her rib cage.

"Well, we had Hazumi Kirishima…delivered to us not long ago."

"How is she?" Mana asked.

"Not well," the professional sounding woman answered reluctantly. "Look, maybe it would be better if you came down here. Then you could hear everything from the doctors."

"I'll be right there," Mana said, then hung up without another word.

_Not well,_ she thought as she raced to the hospital, stomach churning unpleasantly. _What does that even _mean?_ If she was dead, they would have told me, right? And it's not like anybody in the hospital is ever all that well to begin with._

Thoughts spinning crazily around in her brain, Mana boarded a bus that would take her to the hospital, soon wishing for the speed that the armor's jet boots had afforded her. The ride really seemed to take forever.

Finally, she reached her destination. Mana practically sprinted from the curb to the hospital entrance, skidding to a stop on the tile floor right in front of the receptionist's desk.

"Kirishima," she blurted out in a rush. "I'm here to see Hazumi Kirishima. My mother."

The receptionist looked up at her with a pitying expression that didn't do anything at _all_ to ease Mana's feelings of trepidation. "She's in room 11-J," the woman said, and held out a clipboard. "Sign this."

Mana did so, and the receptionist gave her a visitor's pass. Clipping it to the front of her shirt, Mana headed off toward the elevators as quickly as she dared.

Soon arriving at eleventh floor, Mana easily found room 11-J and walked straight in.

Her breath hitched when she saw her mother. Hazumi lay in the room's hospital bed, surrounded by various beeping machines. Her clothes had been replaced by a hospital gown, and a thick white bandage was wrapped around the top of her head. She looked impossibly tiny, pale, and fragile.

"Mom…" Mana said softly.

This quiet utterance got the attention of a white coated man that Mana had failed entirely to notice was in the room with her. The doctor had been in the process of changing Hazumi's IV bag.

"You're her daughter?" the doctor asked.

"Yes," she said. "I'm Mana."

"I'm Dr. Tanaka," the man replied, "the physician in charge of your mother's case."

"How is she?" Mana asked.

"Comatose, I'm afraid," Tanaka said, not without compassion.

Comatose. A state of unconsciousness in which people could spend years. The world abruptly took on a dream-like quality, and nothing seemed quite real any longer. Mana suddenly felt woozy.

"Is she…? Will she…?" she stammered, her tongue tied by a combination of shock and fear of the answer to the question she was trying to ask.

"Your mother's suffered from some severe head trauma, Kirishima-san," Tanaka said gently. "There's no brain damage that we found, but her coma is fairly deep. I'm afraid that the human brain still has many mysterious that medical science has yet to unlock. We really can't say when, or if, she'll wake."

_If she'll wake,_ Mana thought. _God._

"Excuse me, Mana-san, but where is your father?" Tanaka asked.

"He's away from the city on business," Mana lied, not wanting to risk starting more talk of calling Child Services. "I've already called him. He's on his way back."

"I see," Tanaka said. "Well, I'll leave you alone with her. Just so you know, however, visiting hours are over in about thirty minutes."

Mana nodded absently, pulling up a chair next to her mother's bed. The doctor left, and Mana slowly took her mother's hand. It might have just been the girl's imagination, but she thought it felt unnaturally cool to the touch.

"I'm sorry, Mom," Mana said quietly. "If I'd known not to waste time calling the police, if I'd figured out the thing with the cell phone and assembled the armor sooner…"

She trailed off, shaking her head.

_How was I supposed to know any of that?!_ Part of her mind wailed.

It was true that she had had no way of realizing that the police were corrupt prior to giving them a call, and she was just a normal teenage girl, not some kind of super, crime fighting detective. Still, the knowledge that she might have been able to save her mother before these grievous injuries were inflicted upon her, if only she'd realized sooner what needed to be done, vexed Mana to no end.

Yet the strength of her feelings of guilt paled in comparison to the strength of her anger toward the Light of Divine. The pack of zealots had hurt her mother and shattered the promising new life she and Mana were building in Tokyo-3. And they done so for _no good reason_; Hazumi didn't even work on anti-Angel weaponry any longer.

"Don't worry, Mom," Mana said softly, "they won't ever do that to anyone else. I won't let them. I'll make them pay. I promise."

* * *

A half an hour later, Mana was forced to leave the hospital. She returned home with a head full of swirling thoughts. An Angel could have attacked while she was riding the bus to her house and she wouldn't even have noticed. The world seemed like a much darker place than it had yesterday, but perhaps more significantly, it also seemed like a much more _complicated_ place than it had yesterday.

Mana realized that there were a _lot_ of things she'd need to worry about that she hadn't given so much as a thought to before, things which were quite unconnected to her burning need for vengeance. Things which her mother had always taken care of before.

Money was the biggest problem, though not the most immediate one. She'd also have to avoid being drawn into Japan's Child Services system, and…

_The house!_ Mana thought suddenly. Neither she nor her mother owned their new home; the place belonged to Yamagishi Enterprises, and Mana and Hazumi were allowed to live there as a perk of Hazumi's new job.

_Can they evict me from the house now?_ Mana wondered.

Thinking about it, it seemed that so long as Hazumi was officially an employee of Yamagishi Enterprises, she would still have the house. But could the company fire her mother now that Hazumi was stuck in a coma? Mana was fairly certain the law forbid a company from terminating an employee who was injured on the job, but she had no idea what would happen in this situation.

Given all these worries, it was little wonder that Mana nearly missed her stop. Getting off the bus, she spent the short walk home trying to get her suddenly huge list of priorities in order.

_First thing's first,_ she thought, heading into the kitchen and grabbing her mother's book of addresses and phone numbers. Quickly finding the name she wanted, Mana picked up the phone and dialed a number.

"Hello?" a rather gruff sounding voice answered after one ring.

"Good evening, Colonel. It's Mana. Mana Kirishima," she replied. "I hope I'm not calling too late."

Colonel Hiro Sakai of the JSDF was an old friend of the Kirishima's from back when Hazumi had been working more closely with the military. He was a man of many connections both in the military hierarchy and the civilian government. Mana strongly suspected that the man had been taken with her mother (though Hazumi had been oblivious to it as only "absentminded professor" types could be. Honestly, sometimes Mana thought it was a miracle that she even existed).

"No, not at all, Mana," Sakai replied cheerfully. "What can I do for you?"

"It's funny you should ask, actually…" Mana began.

She told him of the events that had occurred that day, leaving out her own role. In Mana's censored version, the police in Tokyo-3 weren't useless, and they had been the one to rescue her mother.

"And now Child Services are going to take me away soon," she finished, deliberately not suppressing her urge to become (and sound) practically hysterical. "I can't just go! I…I'm starting a new life here! And I'm sure Mom will wake up soon! Mom's a fighter! She won't just stay in that damn coma forever! I…I know she won't! And I don't want to be halfway across Japan living with strangers when she comes out of it! I want to be with her when that happens! Please, you have to do something!"

"Oh God, Mana, I'm so sorry," Sakai said. "I hope those cultist bastards pay for what they did."

"M-Me, too," Mana agreed.

"Look, I have some friends in the right departments," he said. "I can have it arranged so that I'm your legal guardian, though you realize it'll be in name only, right?"

"Of course," Mana said. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"Just please, don't get into any trouble while I'm your guardian, all right?" Sakai asked.

"I'll do my best," Mana said, which the best she felt she could offer the man. She tried to make this feeble half-promise sound like it was joke, as though the idea of her getting into trouble was just plain silly.

Her attempt at humor sounded weak even to her own ears, but considering the news she'd been relaying just moments earlier, this didn't strike Sakai as the least bit odd.

"All right, Mana," he said. "Well, I have strings to pull now. I'll just and swing by Tokyo-3 sometime, but it may be a while."

"Right. You're always welcome here," Mana said. "Thank you again. I really can't tell you how much this means to me."

"Good night, Mana."

"Good night."

* * *

Captain Chiron had been in Gendo Ikari's office before. He knew that the place tended to scare lesser individuals, but he had always prided himself on not breaking a sweat while inside the cavernous room.

That point of pride was gone; Chiron could feel sweat running down the back of neck. As the room was actually quite cool, this gave him an urge to shiver. He resisted it, but barely.

The mission had been screwed up. Completely, royally screwed up.

And after calling Chiron into his office, the Commander had so far only sat at his desk and stared at the chief of Section Two, the cold white light of the fluorescents reflecting off his glasses and obscuring his eyes.

It was Chiron's new point of pride that he didn't crack under the pressure and speak first.

"You didn't get all the information," Ikari finally said, having read Chiron's preliminary report already. "And now Kirishima is in a coma."

"That is correct, sir," Chiron replied. "I take full responsibility for the failure of the mission, as well as the actions of my subordinates."

Subordinates, who were, Chiron knew, currently languishing in a jail cell. NERV had already disavowed any connection between them and itself.

Gendo was silent for a while before he spoke again. "You managed to get some information from Kirishima," he said. "Dr. Akagi has informed me that it will be useful when it comes time to design upgrades for the Evangelions."

Chiron felt apprehension rather than relief. He waited for the other shoe to drop.

"However, information on building this armor, rather than pure robots, would have been far more useful," Gendo continued.

"Sir, with all due respect, how do we know that Kirishima built the armor her rescuer used?" Chiron asked.

"Because it was a side project of Hokkaido Heavy Industries, one which she worked on," Gendo said.

"Why wasn't I ever informed that such a thing existed?" Chiron said, feeling a flicker of anger in his chest. He carefully controlled it.

"Because, it was believed that the project was abandoned before a functional prototype was built," Gendo replied. "The unfinished prototype was presumed to have been scrapped."

"Clearly, that wasn't the case," Chiron replied.

"Indeed," Gendo said. "Tell me, Captain, how did the armor perform?"

"It's all there in my report," he said. "When it hit it with that metal hook…"

"You damaged the armor," Gendo finished. "Yes, I know. I read your report. I want more in depth impressions. Was the person inside it able to move smoothly? Were his movements jerky? Was he slow?"

"He was pretty fast, sir," Chiron replied. "Didn't seem too encumbered by the armor, either."

"Hmm," Gendo mused. "Would you say the person was more graceful than the Jet Alone?"

"Yes, sir," Chiron replied.

"What about an EVA?" Gendo pressed.

"Yes, sir," Chiron said.

"Captain, I want that technology," Gendo said.

"Yes, sir."

"You are going to get it for me, Captain," Gendo continued. "It is your one chance at redemption. Get me that armor, or at the very least the schematics needed to duplicate it, or your tenure at NERV will soon be over."

Chiron swallowed. No branch of the military would take him, nor would any other government agency, if he was terminated from NERV. The incident that had happened back in 2008 ensured that.

"You will have your armor, sir," he vowed.

Gendo nodded in approval. "I suggest you get to work as soon as possible," he said. "There are no official records that divulge who took the unfinished prototype, and the team that worked on it was large. Kirishima was friends with most of them."

"I understand, sir," Chiron said.

"Good," Gendo said. "Dismissed."

* * *

Mana had anything but a good night that evening. Sleep eluded her continually, and she tossed and turned, unable to stop thinking about everything she'd have to deal with. At one point, she got up and created a To-Do list of every task she could think of that needed doing, hoping that would let her stop worrying about it all long enough to find rest. It didn't.

Morning came eventually, and Mana forced herself out of bed and through her usual routine. It felt extremely weird to be acting as though it was a normal morning, but Mana knew it would be unwise to do otherwise. It was a Saturday, which meant she had half a day of school, and if Mana failed to show up, someone would call the house wanting to speak with her mother.

Mana had no doubt that the Colonel would come through for her, but she also didn't think it was a good idea for her to advertise the fact that she lived alone and without adult supervision now.

So Mana dragged herself to school, feeling worn out in body and spirit from the terrible whirl of the previous day and the restlessness of the previous night.

She must have looked as bedraggled as she felt, too, because the moment after class began, Shinji opened up his laptop and typed a message to her.

(Are you okay?)

Mana sighed softly and wrote back to him. (I had a really bad yesterday, to put it mildly. I don't want to talk about it.)

Shinji nodded, and no further messages were typed that day.

* * *

Unfortunately for Mana, the Second Child was as obstinate as the Third was reluctant to pry. As soon as school let out, the redhead approached Mana with Hikari in tow.

"Hey, Mana, don't take this the wrong way, but you look like hell," Asuka said.

Hikari was not exactly shocked by Asuka's characteristic bluntness, but it caught Mana off guard, causing the auburn haired girl to release some of the tension inside of her in the form of an unladylike snort of laughter.

"Thank you, Asuka," Mana said sarcastically.

"Well, come on, out with it," Asuka said. "What the hell happened?"

"I really don't want to talk about it, Asuka," Mana replied wearily.

"Oh, don't give me that," Asuka said. "C'mon, spill."

Mana sighed. "You're not going to give up, are you?" she asked, knowing she didn't have it in her at the moment to be obstinate.

"Nope," Asuka said smugly.

Mana sighed. "Fine, you win," she said, leading the two other girls to a relatively secluded and private part of the school yard.

She told them the same edited version of the story that she had given the Colonel, watching her two girl audience become more and more shocked and horrified as she revealed each detail. Asuka in particular looked terribly pale by the time Mana finished.

"Mana…I'm so sorry," Hikari spoke up.

"Thanks," Mana replied, rather dully. "Look, I just want to go home and, well, not do anything. So…"

"Of course," Hikari said. "But, if there's anything we can do, please let us know."

Mana nodded and then walked off without a word.

* * *

Mana had been lying when she told Hikari and Asuka that she didn't want to do anything when she got home. Indeed, sitting around and brooding had never been her response to bad times. When the sky grew black, Mana Kirishima always felt better if she was working.

So work she did. The moment she got home, she discarded her backpack by the door and headed straight to the basement, where she began to work on the armor. She hadn't finished repairing the shoulder to her satisfaction the previous night, she still wanted to improve the resilience of the joints, and she planned to add a voice changer to the helmet. She had found her inability to speak without revealing the fact that she was a girl to be extremely annoying.

She wanted to be able to _tell_ the Light of the Divine just why she'd come for them when she got the armor fixed.

She was nearly finished with her modifications to all the joints when she heard the doorbell ring. Mana felt apprehension mounting in her as it went off, the normally cheery sound striking her as ominous. What if that cop had gone back on his word to wait until Monday to contact Child Services?

Mana was sorely tempted to just ignore the bell and pretend like no one was home, but her curiosity eventually got the better of her and she quietly crept up the basement stairs, feeling surprised when she saw how much the daylight had faded. She hadn't realized that she'd been in the basement for so long.

Putting this out of her mind, she carefully approached one of the windows and peeked out through the curtains at her front porch.

What she saw made her frown in confusion. Shinji Ikari stood outside her front door, holding a small package that was wrapped in cloth. However, confusing or not, Shinji clearly wasn't Child Services, so she opened the door.

"Shinji, hello," Mana said, "what brings you here?"

"Uh, I made this for you," he said bashfully, holding the cloth wrapped box he was carrying forward. Mana was able to smell food inside it. "Asuka told me what happened yesterday. She thought we should do something for you."

Mana couldn't help but release a little laugh at this. "Wait, _Asuka_ felt the urge to do something nice for me, so she gets _you_ to cook for me and deliver it to my house?"

The auburn girl had already noticed, despite her rather brief time in Tokyo-3 so far, that Asuka liked to be in charge. This was a bit much, though.

"Yeah," Shinji said with a small, wry smile. "That's Asuka. I didn't mind, though. It was a good idea, and it's not something I would have come up with myself. I'm not really good at helping people."

Mana reached out to accept the offered package of food, only to realize that her hands were stained with grease and oil. Working on the armor was no better than working on an old car in that respect.

"Forgot about that," Mana said sheepishly. "Why don't you come in while I wash up?"

Shinji looked somewhat uncomfortable with this, but he stepped across the threshold without complaint. Mana led him into the kitchen where she proceeded to start scrubbing her hands, trying (and failing) to avoid getting the faucet dirty in the process.

"I'm not really surprised that Asuka asked me to cook for you, but I don't know why she didn't come with me," Shinji said, more to fill the silence than anything else. "Misato overheard us talking, and just before I left she said something about the, uh, state your mother's in right now 'hitting too close to home' for Asuka, or something. I don't really know what she meant, though. Asuka never talks about her past much, at least not to me, anyway."

It was at this point that Shinji abruptly realized he was rambling, which caused him to instantly close his mouth.

"Well, I'm grateful to the both of you," Mana said. "As soon as I get my hands clean, I'll see what you made for me."

"What were you doing that you got your hands so dirty anyway?" Shinji asked.

"I was…making stuff, down in the workshop we set up in the basement," Mana answered. "It's how I…deal with stuff, I guess."

"Ah," Shinji said, nodding in complete understanding.

He knew about dealing with stuff. He listened to music and stared up at his ceiling for hours on end, rather than building things, but the concept was essentially the same: escape into your own little world for a while until you were ready to deal with the harsh realities of the real one again.

Mana finished cleansing her hands of all the grime that had accumulated on them and went to unwrap the bento box Shinji had brought. She was surprised at the amount of food contained inside.

Shinji gave her a sheepish look. "I didn't know what you like, so I figured I'd make a little of everything."

"There's too much here for just me," Mana said. "Why don't you share it with me?"

"Uh, I should probably be getting back to the apartment," Shinji said.

"Can't you call your roommates up and tell them that poor Mana has just started unloading all her troubles into your sympathetic ear, and that you can't possibly leave until she's done?" the auburn haired girl suggested with a small smile.

"You're in good spirits," Shinji commented, a touch critically.

Mana's smile faded, and Shinji suddenly felt like a huge jerk.

_Why is it that I haven't learned to suppress the urge to open my mouth by now? I never make anything better,_ he thought.

"I'm not," Mana said. "Not really. I guess I just…don't want to eat dinner at an empty table tonight."

"I'm not very good company, but if you want me to stay and eat with you, I will," Shinji said, eager to atone for his previous blunder.

"I'd appreciate it," Mana said.

Nodding, Shinji went to Mana's phone and dialed the apartment. She heard him stammering out some kind of excuse. She got two sets of chopsticks out while he was at it.

"Thank you," she said as he sat down at the kitchen table with her.

"It's nothing," Shinji replied quietly as he began to pick at the bento with the chopsticks she gave him.

They were silent for a minute or two before Mana spoke up. "You know, things for me and Mom were pretty rough before we came to Tokyo-3," she commented.

"Really?" Shinji said, mostly because he didn't know how else to reply.

Mana nodded. "Yeah. Mom used to work for Hokkaido Heavy Industries, the company that built the Jet Alone. Did I tell you that?"  
Shinji shook his head.

"Well, she did," Mana replied. "And the Jet Alone wouldn't have been the malfunctioning kludge that it was if _she'd_ been in charge of the project. Anyway, the company pretty much started collapsing once the JA failed so spectacularly, and Mom was laid off. We…moved around a lot after that. Tokyo-3 was supposed to be our fresh start, and now this happens. As soon as everything starts looking up, this happens…"

"I'm sorry," Shinji said, again, because he didn't know what else to say.

"Me, too," Mana said, then shook her head and gave him a rueful smile. "But I really shouldn't be unloading all my problems on you."

"It's all right," Shinji said.

"Not really," Mana said. "I mean, besides a few exchanges in class, we don't even really know each other, and here I am unloading everything on you. I guess I just needed to do this with someone."

"It's really fine," Shinji reiterated. "I don't mind listening. Besides, it's probably for the best anyway. That you, um, unloaded on me, that is. Something about what happened apparently touches a nerve with Asuka, and from what I understand, Hikari already has a ton of stuff to deal with at home."

Mana nodded absently and said nothing.

"What's going to happen now, anyway?" Shinji asked. "I mean, are you going to move out of the city to live with a relative or something?"

"I don't have any family besides Mom," Mana replied. "I'm staying here."

The look in her eyes dared Shinji to argue that she shouldn't live alone. The Third Child felt no inclination to accept the challenge and kept quiet.

It seemed odd to him, a fourteen-year-old living alone. Unnatural, even. Of course, Ayanami lived alone, and he'd been fine with the idea of living alone prior to Misato proclaiming that he'd live with her. However, while he would like to think of Rei a friend, there was no disputing the fact that she was very odd, and he'd long ago accepted the fact that he was just plain messed up. Mana, on the other hand, seemed pretty normal to him.

But Shinji kept these thoughts to himself and shifted the topic slightly. "How are you going to support yourself, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Mom had some money saved up for emergencies. I should be fine for a while," Mana said.

This was a complete and utter lie, of course, but she couldn't very well tell Shinji the truth.

"I'm sure she'll wake up by then," Mana added, again silently daring Shinji to contradict her.

Again, he had neither the nerve nor the desire to do so. They continued to eat in silence.

Finally, the food was gone, and Shinji got ready to depart.

"Thank you for the meal, Shinji-kun, and for listening to me," Mana said. "And please thank Asuka, too."

"I will," Shinji said, picking up the now empty bento box. "And Mana?"

"Yes?"

He hesitated for a moment, then pushed forward. "Look, I'm not very good at comforting people," Shinji confessed. "But if you just need someone to listen to you…I can do that."

Mana smiled. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Okay, well, I guess I'll see you at school on Monday," Shinji said.

"See you," Mana said.

And with that, Shinji departed, leaving Mana alone again. She watched him from her window as he walked off. It had been quite the nice thing for a boy she merely chatted electronically with in class to do, even if Asuka had put him up to it.

Shaking her head, Mana put the boy out of her mind. She had work to do.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** And so Mana begins her quest for revenge, armed with a lot of technical know how, a suit of power armor, and with her sights on the wrong target.

Chiron's reluctance to harm children maintains the pattern from "Dark Lady of Tokyo-3" and it'll probably end up coming back to bite him just as hard. I was also glad to have him doing more of NERV's dirty work here, as my original justification for the general suckiness of Section Two was that NERV had to hire for willingness to perform illegal/morally reprehensible black ops first and everything else second. This explanation was from "Spirit", if I remember right, but until recently I never really had them doing a whole lot of actual dirty work. The whole bit with them disguising themselves as a local cult was done mostly to throw Mana off the right track, because this fic is already similar enough to its SOE1 counterpart "The Truth Is…" as it is.

Ryousanki, there's going to be an important team up in this story, but it won't be with Hikari.

Hannyu Arashi, that omake contains what I think of as the truth. Mana doesn't know about the school IM system, and Shinji's been leery of it since he inadvertently revealed he was a pilot to the whole class and isn't telling her about it. And I kind of pictured them as being at the back of the room, so no one's behind them to read their messages. And no, Mana's armor will most definitely never be pink.

Anyway, thanks as always to all my readers and reviewers. Now for some fun.

* * *

Omake

Inevitable Meeting of the Metals

_This is _so_ not fair!_ Mana thought as she flew through the air.

The fight she was currently in had gone against her from the very beginning, and now she was resorting to the tried and true method of running the hell away. The good news was that she appeared to have escaped her foe, so maybe she'd actually be able to flee and come back to this fight another day.

"Going somewhere?" a smug voice asked.

"Ahh!" Mana exclaimed in surprise and not a little fear.

She looked up and saw another armored figure hovering overhead. It was her opponent, her opposite number.

The Iron Maiden.

"I didn't really want to do this," Iron Maiden said, "but the author decreed that we have to fight for the readers' amusement. Don't worry, since this is an omake, it won't affect you in the main story."

"Yeah, but it'll affect me _now_!" Mana protested. "Come on, this fight was never fair at all. I haven't got the chance to upgrade this suit at all yet! But you've got stuff like nanobots and arc reactors and turquoise death rays and a sentient AI with a quirky personality! I have a _hammer_!"

Iron Maiden shrugged. "It does kind of suck," she agreed. "But I have a job to do here."

With that, she fired one of the aforementioned turquoise death rays at her counterpart. Mana tried to dodge, but she wasn't quite successful. The colorful beam of death clipped her, and she went careening downwards, screaming the whole way.

Mana went crashing right through the roof of Tokyo-3's lone museum, her armored form shattering several display cases that she happened to land on.

"Ow…did somebody get the number of that bus?" Mana groaned as the world spun before her.

It wasn't long before she heard the sound of a nearby door opening.

"C'mon, girl," Iron Maiden called as she entered the room. "Let's just have this fight so we can call it a day."

_Ugh, she's right,_ Mana thought. _Might as well get it over with…regardless of how badly I'll be pummeled._

Somehow sitting up, Mana realized that she'd lost her hammer in the fall. As this was pretty much the only thing she had that the Iron Maiden didn't, Mana was keen on having it, despite how little use it would probably be next to her foe's arsenal.

Looking around, she soon spotted it laying on the floor nearby and picked it up. However, the moment she did so, she realized something was wrong. It wasn't her hammer she was holding, but a stone mallet with a wooden handle. And on the side of it were words…

" 'Whosoever holds this hammer,'" Mana read softly, " 'If he be worthy, shall possess the power of…'"

There was a huge flash of light that caused the Iron Maiden, who'd been just about to discover where her counterpart was, to shield her eyes. When the light faded, Iron Maiden looked to where it had come from…and her jaw dropped inside her helmet.

Mana emerged, no longer wearing the metallic gray suit of power armor. In its place was more primitive armor of cloth and leather, a flowing red cape, and a winged helmet.

"Now where we?" Mana asked confidently, twirling the stone mallet she held.

_I knew we should have done this in her world instead of mine!_ Iron Maiden thought.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Two: **Steel Revenge

"…if you would like to speak to a representative, please remain on the line," the recorded voice spoke in its infuriatingly polite and cheerful tone.

"Finally!" Mana exclaimed, sitting up in her chair.

When she had originally placed this call, she'd been extremely nervous. However, after waiting for over twenty minutes as the recording instructed her to press one button or another for a bunch of options she didn't want, Mana had become just impatient to get the ordeal over with.

The recording finally gave way to ringing as her call was at last forwarded to a live person.

"Hello, Yamagishi Enterprises, Human Resources Department, this is Nabiki. How can I help you?" a woman answered.

"Hello, my name is Mana Kirishima, and I'm calling on behalf of my mother, Hazumi Kirishima," Mana said. "She's the new scientist at the Tokyo-3 lab."

Mana could hear the sound of typing in the background as the receptionist presumably pulled up the relevant records. "Oh, yes, I'm familiar with her."

"Well, she was… attacked recently," Mana said. "She won't be able to come into work any time soon. She's in a coma."

"Oh my… I'm so sorry," the woman on the other end of the line said in a tone of voice that said she didn't really care but knew she was supposed to sound like she did.

"Me, too," Mana replied. "Look, I understand what kind of position this must put your company in, but I know that my mother really wanted this job. She really doesn't deserve to be terminated in addition to what just happened to her."

"I can't make you any promises, but it ought to be possible to put her on an indefinite, unpaid sick leave," the woman said.

"Thank you so much," Mana said.

"You're welcome," the woman replied. "Now, is there anything else I can help you with, or will that be all?"

"Actually, there is one more thing. The house my mother and I lived in was provided by Yamagishi Enterprises as a perk of her new position. I've looked over her copies of the various documents concerned," Mana said, picking up those copies and glancing at the text on them. "But to be honest, I don't really understand what happens in regards to the house in this situation."

This was perhaps something of an understatement. Mana could instantly understand all but the most complicated pieces of machinery with just a glance at their inner workings, but the legalese in the agreement papers concerning the house was all Greek to her.

It also didn't help that there wasn't exactly a place where it specifically stated what happened if her mother was put into a coma by crazed cultists and couldn't go to work for the foreseeable future.

"Hmm…" The woman made a thoughtful noise, and Mana heard more typing in the background. "Oh."

"What?" Mana asked with a frown, deciding she didn't like the sound of that one bit.

"It seems one of the higher-ups has already heard about Kirishima-san's predicament," the woman answered in a tone of mild surprise. "While Yamagishi Enterprises could legally evict you from the house, its been decided that the company will take no action until a year from now, at which point the situation will be reviewed again if your mother hasn't yet recovered and returned to work."

"I… I see," Mana said, too surprised by this turn of events to question it.

"So, will that be all?" the woman asked.

"Yes, thank you," Mana replied. "Good-bye."

"Bye."

The fourteen-year-old girl hung up the phone, and then rubbed her forehead, perplexed. How could someone high up in Yamagishi Enterprises have already heard about what had happened to her mother, and why would they care enough to make sure Mana didn't get kicked out of the house?

_Ugh, don't go borrowing trouble, Kirishima,_ she told herself. _You've got more than enough of that already._

That was definitely true. While she'd managed to stave off Child Services, and by some providence she was going to be allowed to continue living in her new home, there was still the looming problem of money. If she didn't get some soon, she was going to start having trouble feeding herself.

Fortunately, she had a plan on how to deal with that, too. Setting the cordless phone back into the charging station, Mana headed downstairs to where the armor, now fully repaired, waited for her.

* * *

The light from a computer monitor cast an eerie glow on Iwao Chiron's rock-like face as he stared at the data on the screen, making him look not quite human somehow. Unaware of this, he resisted the urge to heave a forlorn sigh; he had always hated desk work. He preferred to be out in the field, busting heads, but in this case, he was the one who had to figure out which heads to bust.

There was a soft knock at the door to his office.

"Enter," Chiron grunted, glad for the interruption.

One of his underlings walked in. Even though the man was the closest thing Chiron had to a friend among his Section Two colleagues, it still took his tired mind a few seconds to produce his name.

"Sato," he said. "What do you have for me?"

"I've managed to track down the names of everyone at Hokkaido Heavy Industries who worked on the Exosuit," Sato said, placing the list down on Chiron's desk.

Chiron absently gave Sato a word of thanks as he took the list and glanced over at it. It was depressingly long.

"Nothing for it," he said, more to himself than to Sato. The next words from his mouth, however, were directed at his subordinate. "You and Murakami go pay a visit to the first five names on the list. Tell Ito and Hara that they get the next five names. I'll figure out who gets to interview everyone else later."

_More like figure out which of the idiots that I have to work with I expect to screw up a job like this the least,_ Chiron mused, cursing, not for the first time, how few truly competent men he had working for him in Section Two.

Sato coughed nervously. "Uh, sir, Katsuragi had Hara transferred to the Unluckies yesterday."

Chiron scowled darkly. The Unluckies—officially known as Maintenance Team Thirteen—were responsible for cleaning the contaminated LCL vats. They had the smelliest, most unpleasant job in all of NERV, and getting people transferred to that group was a favorite punishment of the purple-haired idiot who called herself an officer.

"What the hell is the stupid bleeding heart pissed off about now?" Chiron snapped.

Usually when Katsuragi pulled this sort of stunt, he let it go; there were always plenty of thugs looking to join Section Two, but Hara was one of his best men.

"Ibuki claims that he was harassing her," Sato answered, obviously hating his job as the messenger more and more. "She said he was pinching her ass in the elevator or something."

_Does that walking beanpole with a head even _have _an ass?_ Chiron wondered, then shook his head, deciding he didn't really care if Hara had actually touched Ibuki or not.

"Whatever," he growled. "Get Hara transferred back to Section Two. I need him for this."

Sato looked like he wanted to ask how he was supposed to make that happen, especially when Section Two wasn't exactly in the Commander's good graces at the moment. Then he took a look at Chiron's stormy expression and thought the better of it.

"Yes, sir," he answered instead.

But he didn't leave, and Chiron eventually noticed his failure to vacate the office. "Yes?"

Sato cleared his throat nervously. "Well, sir, I was just wondering why, ah, that is…"

"Spit it out, Sato," Chiron growled.

"Why aren't we interrogating the girl?"

"You mean Kirishima's daughter?" Chiron asked.

"Yeah," Sato said. "I looked into her background. Kid's a prodigy. She's got the brains to work the Exosuit, she had more motive than anyone to rescue Kirishima, and we know she was in the city when it went down, which is more than we can say for most of the people on that list I just brought you."

"She's also too short to operate the Exosuit," Chiron said. "I checked the specs. A person has to be at least 5'9'' to work the thing."

"Oh," Sato said, and it was obvious that the chief of Section Two had taken some of the wind from his sails. "Well, it's still possible that the girl was involved. She might have served as tech support for whoever took the suit out."

"Which is why I've had her phone tapped," Chiron said. "If she's in contact with our tin man, we'll find out soon enough."

"Why don't we just snatch her off the street and interrogate her?" Sato pressed. "Take the direct approach? Not like she's got connections to anyone who could do anything about it."

"I don't like involving kids," Chiron answered shortly.

"Why not?" Sato asked.

Chiron scowled. "You're really pushing it here, you know that?" he asked.

Sato shrugged. "If you're willing to butt heads with Katsuragi—_again _—over Hara, I don't think you'll fire me for being curious," he said with the kind of self-assurance that only a man who knows he's indispensable can display. "I was just thinking that NERV's a weird place to work for if you've got a soft spot for kids."

"You're prepared to be a pain in the ass about this, aren't you?" Chiron groaned.

"Completely prepared," Sato managed to answer with a straight face.

Chiron sighed and rubbed his eyes with one of his big hands. "You heard about that terrorist bombing back in 2008?"

"Yeah, who didn't?" Sato said. "Some psycho terrorist blew up a… oh, damn."

"Yeah," Chiron answered. "I was with government intelligence at the time. We managed to catch the bastard, and we knew there was a bomb."

"And then?" Sato asked.

* * *

_2008_

Chiron shoved the terrorist, a man named Eiji Kobayashi, up against the wall hard enough to crack the plaster. "Where's the bomb?!" the big man roared.

"Whoa, Iwao, calm down," one of his subordinates said.

"Shut up," Chiron snarled, then turned back to the terrorist. "Where's the bomb?"

"I would never betray the great—"

Chiron pulled the man toward him and then slammed him into the wall again. Bits of plaster and drywall flew this time. "I don't care why you did this or what your cause is. I just want to know where the god damn bomb is."

"I'll never tell," the terrorist whispered.

"Oh, wrong answer," Chiron said, throwing the man into a nearby chair. He turned to his associates. "Tie him down."

His men quickly complied, securing Kobayashi's wrists and ankles to the chair, but they were clearly uncomfortable with what their boss seemed to have in mind. Chiron didn't care. He stalked over to the terrorist and bent down so he was right in the man's face.

"You don't need intact fingers to tell me where the bomb is," Chiron said in a low voice, grabbing hold of Kobayashi's right pinky finger and pulling it back as far as he could without breaking it.

"Chiron!" one of his underlings said.

He turned to glare at the other agents with him. "You can stay here," he said, "or you can get out of here and say that I sent you out before I started. But I _am_ going to get the information from this bastard."

The other agents turned and looked nervously at one another. Then one of them turned and silently left the room. The others hesitated for only a moment before they filed out after him.

Chiron waited until they'd shut the door behind themselves to turn his attention back to Kobayashi. "Now, the bomb?"

"I'll never tell," the man whispered, even as beads of sweat rolled down the side of his face.

"You know," Chiron said softly, "I was kind of hoping you'd say that."

Four fingers later, the man confessed that the bomb was hidden in the downtown subway station.

* * *

"Only problem was that he _didn't_ hide the bomb in a subway station," Chiron said. "He hid it in a damn school bus. And by the time we found out it wasn't where he told us… boom."

"Shit," Sato said.

"Of course, when time came to find a scapegoat, the guy who broke the law in the process of getting the wrong answer was the perfect man for the job," Chiron said. "I was lucky I didn't go to jail, and I thought for sure my career was done, but then Ikari offered me a job. So, yeah, that's why I don't like to involve kids."

"Got it," Sato said. "I'll just get to work on tracking down those scientists now."

"Oh, one more thing," Chiron said.

"Yeah?"

"I have a reputation to maintain," Chiron said. "Spread this story around, and I'll rip out your throat."

Sato swallowed. "Yes, sir."

* * *

Mana felt her heart beating quickly as she flew through the night air in an armored cocoon. She would have thought that, having done this once already, she wouldn't be quite so nervous this time. If anything, however, without the desperation invoked by the knowledge that her mother was in mortal danger, she was even more anxious about what she was about to do and far more tempted not to do it.

_What if the police show up sooner than I expect and this gets ugly?_ Mana wondered nervously. _What if one of the superwomen shows up?_

As powerful as the armor made her, she had _no_ illusions that she'd be able to take down Power Girl or Wonder Girl in it; either of them could doubtlessly crush her like a soda can. In fact, of the costumed heroines in the city, there was only one she thought she _might_ have a prayer of winning a fight against.

_That would be the worst. Me, the biggest fan of the superwomen, getting ruined by one of them,_ Mana thought. _Then again, maybe they'd listen to me and help me._

Though she liked _that_ idea, Mana had to admit it didn't seem very likely, and she suddenly wanted very much to just head for home.

Only problem was, not going through with her plan wasn't an option, not if she wanted to continue feeding herself and paying the bills. Besides, if she didn't have the stomach for what she was about to do, she might as well scrap all her plans to get revenge on the Light of the Divine.

She was jarred from her thoughts as a display on her HUD started blinking. According to the suit's GPS, she was almost right above the Light of the Divine's headquarters.

Mana couldn't help but be struck by how normal the building looked. It was just an ordinary, brick building with four floors. Any small business might have called the place home, and it didn't at all look how she thought a cult's headquarters should. There should have been arcane symbols and all kinds of gaudy embellishments.

But after double-checking the address, Mana was certain that she was in the right place.

_Guess it's do-or-die time,_ she thought grimly, positioning herself directly over the building.

She lowered herself down to the roof of the building, and despite how carefully and slowly she had descended, she still landed pretty heavily. If there was anyone in the room beneath her, they would have undoubtedly heard something.

_Good thing I'm not going for stealth,_ she thought, as she swung her hammer down at the roof of the building.

Wood, plaster, and tile all shattered beneath the force of the blow, and chunks of rubble went raining down into the room below as the great hammer knocked a large hole into the roof.

The people inside the room immediately below her, who had indeed been looking up at the ceiling and wondering about the deep thump that had come from above them, screamed loudly and began to scramble toward the door.

Mana swung the hammer again, increasing the size of the hole. A couple more blows after that and it was large enough for her to get through easily. Forgoing the use of the jets in her boots, she jumped down, landing on the floor of the building's top level… and crashed right _through_ it and went falling to the floor below it. She landed on top of a large oak desk, the hardwood piece of furniture breaking in two beneath her weight with a loud _crack!_ and a small flurry of splinters.

_Damn, forgot just how _heavy_ this suit is,_ Mana thought, wincing. _That probably didn't look very scary._

"Oh, god! Run!" one of the people on the floor she'd crashed into shouted.

_Then again…_

Mana got up, suppressing the groan that wanted to make its way out of her throat. The armor had taken most of the abuse from the fall, but she had still been jostled around inside of it pretty good.

_Note to self: see about adding more shock absorbers,_ she thought as she got up and quickly scanned her surroundings.

About half a dozen people were scrambling for the door, but the man whose desk Mana had shattered beneath her was retreating very slowly, as though afraid that any sudden movement might capture her attention.

She reached out and grabbed hold of his shirt with her armored hand, easily lifting him off the ground and pulling his face close to the armor's mask.

The guy let out a terrified, pathetic sort of whimper, looking like he was about to wet himself, and all of a sudden, Mana felt like a terrible bully. Her hostage didn't look anything like a murderous, psychotic cultist. Instead, he looked like a perfectly normal salary man. Hell, except for the tie he was wearing, his clothes could have passed for the uniform that the boys at her school were expected to wear!

_Oh, I'm not sure I can do this,_ Mana thought, feeling uncertainty rising up in her like bile.

Then, the image of her mother in a hospital bed, hooked up to numerous machines and looking impossibly pale and fragile came unbidden to Mana's mind. Her face hardened behind her helmet.

"Who's in charge around here?" she demanded, and the voice changer she'd installed into the helmet changed her usually soft and feminine tones into a deep bass sound that was more appropriate to the image the armor projected.

"The… the High Apostle," the man sputtered.

Mana felt a weird sort of relief at finally encountering something that screamed "cult".

"Where can I find him?" she demanded.

"B-Bottom floor," the man stuttered. "I-it's the b-biggest office."

"Thank you," she said, then casually tossed the man across the room. He crashed into the walls of a cubicle, knocking them over. However, he didn't seem to have taken any harm from it, or if he had, he was in too much of a panic to feel the pain; the man immediately scrambled to his feet and ran the hell away.

Mana paid him no mind, and raised her hammer high above her head. She was quickly coming to the conclusion that things like elevators and stairs were for sissies.

With a cry, she smashed another hole in the floor, and this time used the jets in her boots to descend to the lower level of the building. This still wasn't the bottom floor, so Mana repeated the process, enjoying the way that everyone who saw her went fleeing in terror.

Finally reaching the ground level, Mana snagged another of the hapless workers.

"Where's the High Apostle?" she asked sweetly.

"Holed up in his office," the terrified paper-pusher responded, then raised an arm and pointed. "It's that way."

"Thank you," Mana said, and then threw the desk jockey across the room like the previous guy.

Though her many anxieties remained, there was no denying that part of her was definitely getting into this; despite herself, she was really starting to enjoy the sheer, raw power that wielding the armor gave her.

Mana stalked toward the grand poobah's office, and she wasn't surprised when she soon found a half a dozen security guards waiting for her. However, unlike the average rent-a-cop, these guys were all armed with real guns.

She couldn't help but flinch as they started pulling the triggers.

The Exosuit was designed to turn a foot soldier into a walking tank, and it was impossible to destroy a tank with small-arms fire. There were loud _plink!_ sounds almost like a hard rain hitting a rooftop as bullets bounced off Mana's armor.

Finally realizing just how useless their hail of gunfire was, and several of them running out of ammunition, the group of security guards slowly lowered their guns, gazing at Mana in shock.

The teenaged girl in the big metal suit made a show of examining the several minor dings in her armor. "Do you have _any idea_ how long it'll take to buff all this out?" she growled with feigned anger, even though in truth she was mostly just feeling impressed with how effortlessly the armor had withstood the assault.

One of the security guards decided to play hero, charging at her with a wild battle cry. Feeling confident after the bullets had bounced off her armor harmlessly, Mana didn't attempt to dodge.

_**KLANG!**_

There was a loud, metallic ring as the man slammed into her going at full tilt, his attempt at tackling her failing to budge her an inch. He collapsed to the floor and then looked up at her dazedly.

"I'd take this as my cue to run away, if I were you," Mana addressed the group of men.

The Light of the Divine's security guards were, to a man, all highly competent and well-trained individuals. They also did their jobs entirely for the money, all of them being largely indifferent to the group's radical beliefs. They certainly weren't about to lay their lives down for the Light's dogma.

So they fled from the battle they couldn't win. Mana let them go and proceeded to walk right up to the High Apostle's ornate door, attaching her hammer to the magnetic plate on the back of her suit as she did so.

"Knock, knock!" she called, putting her armored fist right through the wood and sending splinters flying.

Grabbing hold of the door, she pulled on it, and with a groan of protest from the hinges, she soon tore it off the frame and tossed it aside like a piece of rubbish. A rotund man was inside the well-appointed office she revealed, and it looked like he was trying to make a break for the window.

_Not gonna happen,_ Mana decided with a smirk, raising her arm and firing off several blasts from the rivet canon mounted on her forearm. Several metal spikes shot out from the weapon, piercing the High Apostle's clothes and then pinning him to the wall. He let out a cry as he realized that he was trapped.

Mana slowly walked over to the terrified man, delighting in the way his face noticeably paled as she drew near.

"Wh-Who are you?" he stammered out.

"You can call me Steel," she said.

She had come to very much like her earlier idea of being "the other Girl of Steel" even if she was pretending to be a guy in order to keep anyone from figuring out who she was. Now she just had to hope that Power Girl didn't take offense at the moniker Mana had chosen for herself.

The idea of having Power Girl pissed off at her caused Mana to shiver slightly, but she put all these thoughts from her mind and focused on her captive.

"You're the High Apostle, aren't you?" she asked.

"Y-Yes," he answered.

"Does that make you the leader of the Light of the Divine?" she demanded.

"Oh no," the High Apostle replied earnestly. "The Prophet is our leader."

"Really? What's this Prophet's name?" she asked.

"The Prophet has no name," the High Apostle said. "He has dedicated himself entirely to the Light. He needs no identity beyond that of the leader of our group."

"Does he have a home address?" Mana asked.

"He does, but I won't tell you," the High Apostle answered, his eyes blazing with defiance. "I would die before I betrayed the Prophet."

_The damned nut would, too,_ Mana decided with a scowl, easily able to see the insane zeal written on his face.

"Fine," she grumbled, grabbing hold of him and pulling him off the wall, taking no great care to spare his clothes from damage as she did so. "You can go."

"Really?" the High Apostle asked, understandably dubious and taking note of the fact that Steel had yet to actually let go of him.

"Oh, yes," Mana said, "but I want you to take a message to all your cult buddies for me."

"The Light of the Divine is not—" the High Apostle's indignant protest was cut off as Mana tightened her grip on the man.

"I want you to tell them," she began, "that Steel is coming for them. That Steel has declared war on the Light of the Divine. And that I am going to strip the Light of the Divine of everything—_everything_—that lets you people appear to be more than a group of psychos in bad costumes. I am going to tear down everything you've built, brick by brick if I have to. By the time I'm done, you'll have nothing left. No illusion of legitimacy. No political power. No public support. No nothing, except your own insane beliefs, if you can hold onto them. You think you can relay that message for me?"

The High Apostle nodded.

"Good," Mana said. "Now, I am going to start by taking my hammer and tearing apart this building until it's nothing more than a pile of debris. I suggest you get yourself and everyone else out of here." And with that she lowered the man to the ground.

He hesitated a moment, seeming to consider whether or not he should try and stop her from tearing down the building, even though he knew there was no way he could win against the armored figure. Then he thought the better of making such a futile effort and went sprinting from the room, leaving Mana alone.

Alone with his computer, which he'd never gotten the chance to log out from. Mana smirked as she observed his monitor.

Not trusting his chair as capable of supporting her weight while she was in the armor, she bent over his desk and began to type, pleasantly surprised at just how remarkably dexterous the fingers of the suit's gauntlets were. Mana was almost as good at hacking as she was with machinery, and it didn't take her long to gain access to one of the Light of the Divine's accounts. She let out a low whistle as she saw just how much money was in it.

_Mine now,_ she thought, transferring the funds with a few keystrokes. The money would bounce around cyberspace for several hours, eventually losing any potential attempts to trace where it was going, until it ended up in an account in the Cayman Islands she had opened for herself.

Satisfied that her money troubles were over for a good long time, Mana grabbed her hammer and began to scan the building for key support beams. She'd like to make good on the first part of her promise before the police arrived.

* * *

Generally speaking, Shinji had never cared about gossip much. It all just seemed so irrelevant to him, and most of the time it wasn't true, anyway; most of the rumors that had flown around the school upon Asuka's arrival, for instance, had been so wrong that they were almost laughable.

And it didn't help that, until fairly recently in his life, Shinji had never really had anyone to gossip with, anyway.

That morning, however, remaining aloof from all the rumors running through the student body proved quite impossible.

"Hey, Shin-man, have you heard the news?" Toji asked as the Third Child approached his two friends in the schoolyard.

"What news?"

"The Light of the Divine's headquarters was destroyed yesterday," Kensuke said, excitedly conveying the information before Toji could and getting an annoyed look from the jock. "There's nothing left of that building but a bunch of rubble."

Shinji's eyes widened. "Whoa, really? What did it?" he asked, wondering what could and would destroy just one specific building.

"No-one knows for sure, except maybe some of the cultists," Kensuke answered, having thoroughly hijacked the story by now and cheerfully ignoring the scowl his athletic friend was giving him. "But there are some crazy rumors flying around. According to one of the more popular ones, a guy in some kind of power armor attacked the place and tore it down."

Toji just shook his head. "I keep telling you that's ridiculous, Ken," he said. "That kind of thing doesn't happen outside of anime and stuff."

The bespectacled boy actually snorted at this. "You would've said the same thing about Evangelion or the superwomen just a year ago," he pointed out. "I thought you would have learned by now that you can't dismiss anything, not in this city. Personally, I'm glad to see that there may be a guy superhero out there. Our gender has been severely underrepresented so far."

Toji just rolled his eyes. "Ken, just because some wild things have been happening lately, it doesn't mean that you can believe every crazy rumor you hear."

The two of them started to debate the issue back forth, and Shinji just stood there, pretending to observe the conversation while actually getting lost in his own thoughts. The Light of the Divine was usually an uncomfortable subject for him; the Third Child found it pretty disturbing that the group believed he was directly defying the will of God, but he wasn't about to stop piloting EVA just because of them.

Beyond that, they had always just been annoyance, but since what had happened to Mana, well, Shinji simply didn't have enough malice in him to delight in someone else's ills, but he wasn't about to shed a tear over the organization's misfortune.

And speaking of Mana…

"Hey, have you seen Kirishima around anywhere?" he asked, taking advantage of a lull in the other boys' argument.

"Hmm? Oh, I think I saw her heading into the classroom," Kensuke answered.

"Why do you want to know, eh, Ikari?" Toji asked, a suggestive grin on his face.

"It's not like that," Shinji insisted, trying to marshal a scowl but feeling only a blush.

"Uh-huh, _suuuure_ it's not," Toji sarcastically agreed. "Ya know, Kirishima's definitely cute, but I gotta tell ya, if _I_ lived with Misato, I wouldn't be wasting my time with any of the women around here."

Having long ago given up on trying to get his friends to realize that there were drawbacks to living with the Operations Director—most notably, having to either constantly pick up after her or live in complete squalor—Shinji forced back the first response that came to his mind.

"It's really not like that guys," he said, then quickly made his retreat before his friends could start asking him which specific part of Mana's body he found the most attractive.

It was still early enough that nobody needed to worry about getting to class late yet, and as the weather outside was beautiful that day, not a lot of students had made their way to the classroom yet.

Mana was seated alone at her desk, and Shinji was struck by what she doing. The auburn-haired girl was listening to music and staring dully into space. She looked like he did most mornings, except instead of an SDAT she had some kind of Frankenstein MP3 player that looked like it had been assembled by hand from the pieces of various other music players.

Looking at her, Shinji couldn't help but wonder if he looked so dead to the world when _he_ was listening to his music.

He also wondered if he should just leave and try to speak with her a bit later; Shinji knew that he didn't want to be disturbed when he was listening to his SDAT.

Fortunately, the conundrum solved itself when Mana took notice of him and removed the headphones she was wearing. The glazed look she'd been wearing left her blue eyes as she focused on Shinji and offered him a tired but genuine smile.

"Good morning, Shinji," she said.

"Morning," he replied. "So, uh, have you heard the news?"

"About the Light of the Divine's headquarters? Yeah, who hasn't by now?" she said. "Couldn't have happened to a nicer group, but I could live without everyone talking about them."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Shinji replied.

Mana nodded, and an uncomfortable silence followed.

"Uh, this is for you," Shinji said awkwardly and held out a small package that was wrapped in a white cloth.

Mana blinked and then accepted the bento box. "Oh, thank you!" she said. "How in the world did you know I wouldn't have time to make myself lunch this morning?"

"Uh, I didn't," Shinji confessed. "Asuka just thought that you might forget or something with everything else that you're dealing with."

"Asuka again!" Mana exclaimed with something that was a cross between a laugh and a groan. "Shinji, you can't let her turn you into my personal servant. Or my personal chef, either."

He shrugged. "I didn't mind. It was just like last time. I only wish I'd thought to do it myself."

"Still, I have to do something to thank you," Mana said. "Listen, why don't I cook for you? You can come over to my place for dinner tomorrow night. Asuka can come, too, if she likes."

Shinji strongly suspected that Asuka wouldn't go; something about what had happened to Mana had truly gotten under the Second Child's skin, and the redhead was maintaining some distance between herself and her new friend. She wouldn't have sent him to Mana's place alone the other day if she wasn't.

He never quite realized that Mana might also suspect that Asuka wouldn't accept the invitation, either.

"Oh, I couldn't," Shinji said, desperately trying to find some way of declining that was both inoffensive and graceful. "I didn't cook for you because I was looking for something in return."

"I didn't say you did," Mana countered, "but I'm trying to repay you anyway."

"Uh, I really can't… I mean I…" Shinji stumbled along clumsily.

"Please," Mana said. "It turns out it can be really difficult… eating at an empty table, I mean."

"All right," Shinji finally gave in, unable to resist this particular tact. "I'll come over tomorrow evening."

Mana smiled warmly at him, and Shinji suddenly realized that his mouth had gone dry, though he couldn't say just why that was exactly.

"How does sukiyaki sound?" she asked.

"Good," Shinji answered.

"Great," Mana said. "Come at six, and bring a bottle of sake with you."

Still feeling a trifle dazed, Shinji responded before fully processing what she'd just said. "Sure," he agreed, then he frowned. "Hey, wait! I can't—"

"Shinji, I was kidding about the sake," Mana said flatly.

"Oh…" he said, embarrassed.

Mana bit her bottom lip, trying to restrain the chuckle that was building up inside her, but it was a futile struggle. The chuckle turned into a snicker, which morphed into a guffaw, which finally changed to full throated laughter.

A few of the other students turned to a look at the giggling girl. Mana didn't seem to mind the stares. Shinji felt embarrassed for her.

"Thanks, Shinji," Mana said, wiping a tear from her eye as she calmed down. "I needed a laugh."

"Um, you're welcome," Shinji replied.

* * *

It was well-known that Tokyo-3 was a military town. Considering that the local economy revolved around NERV, it would have been hard to live there and not know that, even if the place wasn't the site where humanity chose to stand and fight the Angels.

However, most people didn't know, or just couldn't comprehend, how _much_ of a military town the city was. When one got down to it, the entirety of Tokyo-3 was really just one huge fortress in which a few civilians happened to live.

Fortresses had weapons, and Tokyo-3 was no exception to the rule; when it was in its wartime configuration, the city bristled with hundreds upon hundreds of missiles, rockets, and dozens of other types of munitions.

Of course, as seemed to always be the case, when the government bought things in bulk, some of it was always "lost". As a result, Tokyo-3 boasted a particularly robust black market where all these misplaced weapons were bought and sold.

And it was with a representative of this black market that the High Apostle was currently meeting with.

"Hello, there, sir," the young man in the nice dark suit greeted the cultist, a totally phony smile plastered onto his face.

"Hello," the High Apostle replied.

"I'm Hiro Toriyama. What can I call you, sir?" the arms dealer said.

"I am simply the High Apostle. It is my whole identity. I have forsaken all others in the name of the Light."

"That's fine," Toriyama replied amicably. "If you've got the money, I've got the time, and I don't care what you call yourself, Mr. High Apostle."

The cultist repressed a scowl, deciding he didn't like this man and his flippant tongue much.

"Let's step into my office," Toriyama said, sweeping an arm out.

The dealer's "office" turned out to be the inside of an abandoned warehouse. Three folding tables had been set up and had guns of various sizes spread out over them. A quartet of armed guards stood silently around the table, to discourage any foolish actions by the client or anyone who might have stumbled upon the sale.

"Like what you see?" Toriyama asked with a grin as the High Apostle regarded the assortment of deadly weapons.

"Maybe," the High Apostle lied. "Before we start, though, I wanted to ask you if you knew anything about one special weapon."

For the first time, the dealer's artificial friendly expression faltered. "Hey, now, I can't be giving details about what my other clients may or may not have purchased from me."

The High Apostle grunted. "Yes, I can understand that. But, you see, my organization recently had trouble with a man wearing a mechanical suit. He seemed quite unstoppable, and I was wondering if you knew anything about it."

Toriyama shook his head. "No, sorry, sir. I _wish_ I had that kind of merchandise, but generally I don't in traffic anything _quite_ so… exotic."

The High Apostle nodded. He'd suspected that common gun-runners wouldn't even have heard of Steel's damnable power suit, but it hadn't hurt to ask.

"Well, I need something that can take the tin man down. And I don't think that any of this," the High Apostle gestured toward the array of firearms spread out before him, "will be sufficient. Do you have any _bigger_ guns?"

Toriyama smiled. "Absolutely," he said, "but they're not cheap."

"I can pay," the High Apostle said.

Steel had cost the Light of the Divine a great deal the previous night, both by stealing from them and by tearing down their headquarters. They'd have to press on their richer members harder than usual for donations for some time, but the Light still had a formidable amount of cash.

"In that case," Toriyama said, "let me show you my special inventory. I think I've got _just_ the thing to solve your mechanical man problem."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** And so Mana has officially taken on the name Steel and has begun her quest for vengeance. I kind of feel like I'm still getting my footing with this fic, and most of that this because, let's face it, Steel's rogue's gallery was pretty forgettable, so I'm having to create quite a bit of stuff from scratch.

Speaking of that, I'm taking the chance to flesh out Chiron a bit more, since he's been playing a bigger role than usual lately. I wanted to change him a bit from what he became in the original SOE series, making him less of a raging sexist (though he's still definitely no feminist) and more of a ruthless bastard who generally didn't care what he kind of brutality he had to stoop to in order to get the job done. Not that the old version of Chiron wasn't wonderfully easy to hate, but this was more how I'd originally envisioned the guy.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta readers as well.

* * *

Omakes!

Never Piss Off a Woman in Tokyo-3

It was a pretty difficult task to avoid someone in the confines of an elevator car, but Maya Ibuki was giving it her all.

"Hey, come on there, sweet cheeks, don't be playing hard to get like this," the Section Two man said with a grin as he tried to corner her.

"I'm not playing hard to get, Mr. Hara!" the techie retorted as she ducked under his arms and avoided getting pinned between him and the wall. "I don't want this!"

"Your words say 'no, no' but your eyes say 'yes, please', sweet cheeks!" Hara responded.

"Has that ever worked on a woman?" Maya asked. "Ever?"

The elevator's bell rang, and to Maya's relief, the doors started to slide open, revealing Hara's floor.

"Looks like your stop," she observed.

"So it does," Hara said. "So, same time tomorrow, sweet cheeks?"

"I don't think so, Mr. Har—"

Maya's attempt at dissuading him ended with a squeak as he reached down and roughly pinched one of her "sweet cheeks."

"Until tomorrow, babe," he said, walking off with a smirk on his face.

Maya scowled darkly at him as the elevator doors began to slide closed again. She tried to avoid using her magic powers at work, but for this guy, she'd make an exception.

"Evisolpxe aehrraid," she hissed softly, employing her usual backwards speech for the incantation.

Just before the elevator doors slid closed, Maya managed to see Hara break out into a run, doubtlessly heading for the bathroom. The knowledge that he'd never make it there in time made her grin wickedly.

* * *

Welcome to the Club!

"Who's in charge around here?" Mana demanded.

"The… the High Apostle," the man sputtered.

"Where can I find him?" she demanded.

"B-Bottom floor," the man stuttered. "I-it's the b-biggest office."

"Thank you," she said, then casually tossed the man across the room. He crashed into the walls of a cubicle, knocking them over. However, he didn't seem to have taken any harm from it, or if he had, he was in too much of a panic to feel the pain; the man immediately scrambled to his feet and ran the hell away.

Mana paid him no mind, and raised her hammer high above her head. She was quickly coming to the conclusion that things like elevators and stairs were for sissies.

With a cry, she tried to bring her hammer down to smash another hole into the floor, but she found that she couldn't move her weapon so much as a centimeter. It was like the thing had suddenly become imbedded in a mountain.

Feeling a great deal of trepidation, she turned her head to see what the problem was. Her pupils shrank to the size of pinpoints when she saw the reason she couldn't move her hammer.

Power Girl was standing right behind her. The original Girl of Steel was casually holding onto the shaft of the hammer with one hand.

"So," the caped superwoman said, "what are you doing, big boy?"

"Uh…" Mana stammered helplessly. "I, um…"

"And for that matter, _who_ are you?" Power Girl asked.

Mana still couldn't answer, but she didn't have to. With a quick application of her X-ray vision, she had seen right through the armored figure's helmet.

"Mana?" Power Girl gasped softly.

"How do you…wait," Mana whispered. "_Asuka?_"

"Yeah," Power Girl replied. "What are you doing here? Why are you tearing this place apart?"

Mana quickly explained the situation to her new friend in hushed tones.

"Power Girl?" one of the cultists spoke up tentatively just as Mana was finishing her story. "You're going to take care of the tin man, right?"

"Actually," the lone heir of Krypton said, cracking her knuckles, "I was going to ask Steel here if she…er, he, needed any help!"

"Really?" Mana asked joyously, as the cultists stared at the two superwomen in shock.

"Yep!" Power Girl said. "I'd be pleased to help you, and it would be great if you could join this little group of superheroes we've all been putting together."

"You mean it?" Mana asked, barely daring to believe that she was receiving such an invite.

"Sure, we'd be happy to have you around! And I'm sure we could use another tech person. Because I have to tell you, I do _not_ trust that fake blonde Akagi 100 percent," she spoke the last part in an undertone. Power Girl reached into a small pouch at her belt and withdrew a plastic card. "Here's your union membership card."

"Wait, you people have a _union?_" one of the cultists blurted out. "With _membership cards?_"

"Sure," Power Girl said. "What were you expecting us to have? Decoder rings?"

* * *

NERV's Dirty Jobs

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Mike Rowe, and you're watching Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel," the television show host said. "On this show, we take a look at the working lives of the dedicated men and woman who make civilized life possible for the rest of us. Today, we're at NERV headquarters in Tokyo-3, and I'm talking with a man named Yoshi who works on Maintenance Team Thirteen. Hi, Yoshi."

"Hello, Mike. Pleasure to meet you," Yoshi said, shaking hands with the show's host.

"You, too, Yoshi," Rowe said. "Now, I understand your team does the diritiest job in this place."

"That's right," Yoshi replied. "Our job is so dirty and smelly that they call us the Unluckies around here."

"All right," Rowe said. "Well, show me the ropes, Yoshi."

* * *

There was a scene change, and the two of them were suddenly in white, full body protective suits, goggles, and gas masks. They were now standing outside a large vat.

"Okay, Mike," Yoshi said, "inside this container is the congealed remains of a substance called LCL, which is vital to the operation of the Evangelions. It doesn't smell too pleasant when it's fresh, but when it rots, it gives off the most vile strench in the world. And it's our job to clean this vat out."

"Great," Rowe said. "Well, let's get to work."

The two of them descended into the mostly empty vat using a ladder, each one with a sponge, a broom, and a small shovel attached to their belts.

"Oh, man!" Rowe nearly gagged as they reached the bottom, "I have to tell you, Yoshi, I have smelled some truly terrible things, but I think this might just take the cake."

Yoshi laughed. "And you know what? You never get used to it!"

"Ugh! Is this mask doing anything at all?" Rowe asked, tapping his gas mask.

"Oh, yeah," Yoshi said. "I know it doesn't seem like, but I had a man take it off once while he was in one of these things. The smell instantly knocked him unconsious."

"Wow," Rowe said. "You ever wonder if this is hazardous to your health?"

"I don't wonder, I know," Yoshi replied. "It's been scientifically proven that this job will shorten your life by 5 to 10 years, but whenever we ask for better masks, the Commander says something about how the coming end of the world means it won't matter."

"...what?" Rowe asked.

"Still, I suppose this isn't the worst job in this place, even though it is the smelliest," Yoshi continued. "I'd rather be here than inside an EVA like the kids we make pilot the things? Did you know the Commander blackmailed his son into piloting the first time by threatening to send a half-dead Rei Ayanami in his place? Some of the guys tried to start betting that the Commander would actually send the girl if the boy just left, but nobody would take the wager. Everybody _knew_ that old man Ikari would go and throw the girl to the lions if his son refused."

"Really?" Rowe said, while frantically motioning to his cameraman to stop filming.

* * *

"Are you sure letting that Mike Rowe person and his film crew into the base was a good idea?" Fuyutski asked Gendo, the two of them in the Commander's office.

"I'm sure it will garner us a lot of positive publicity, Sensei," Gendo replied.

(A/N: Don't own "Dirty Jobs.")


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Three: **War Against the Light, Part One

Overall, the inside of the building could have almost passed for a Christian place of worship. The church was constructed from white stone, with candles present at regular intervals along the wall. Stained-glass windows turned the sunlight that streamed inside into a riot of bright colors. A stone altar with a red cloth draped over it was at the far end of the main room, and statues of angels were on display in various places. Several rows of wooden pews dominated the center of the room.

However, the conspicuous absence of the cross anywhere was a rather glaring sign that the place was _not_, in fact, a Christian church of any kind. In place of that well-known emblem was an image of a yellow flame with lines of light radiating out from it.

The symbol of the Light of the Divine.

"Brothers and sisters," the clergyman said, standing at the altar and wearing the robes of his fringe religion, "Man has defeated the emissary of God again."

The crowd released a series of loud boos and hisses. The pastor waited patiently until it subsided.

"NERV denies that another of the Almighty's holy messengers struck recently, but sources of information we have within that den of sin have told us the truth," the pastor said. "The Eleventh Angel came, and it was slain by those who think they are _better_ than God!"

More booing and hissing from the crowd followed.

"Now, everywhere, even though Judgment Day has again been deferred, we _cannot_ lose faith!" the pastor proclaimed. "Man cannot thwart the will of God forever! The world as we know it _will_ end soon, and the faithful shall be delivered unto paradise!"

The crowd cheered.

"However, that does not mean we can just sit around, feeling complacent!" the pastor continued, gesturing wildly. "God helps those who help _themselves!_ And all of us must help God help us bring about—!"

The fiery sermon was abruptly cut off by the sound of glass shattering. Everyone let out a collective yelp, and the crowd turned to see broken fragments of one of the colorful windows raining down to the floor.

Hovering in the air just inside the shattered window was a figure in an armored suit, gouts of flame spurting from the jets in the bottoms of his metallic boots.

"Steel," the pastor whispered in the moment of absolute silence that followed the armored man's entrance.

"I don't know about you," the metal man said, brandishing his hammer, "but I'm in the mood for some sacrilege."

The comment broke the spell of stunned silence which had fallen over the crowd, and they began to scream in fright, having heard about what Steel had done to their organization's headquarters. The vast bulk of the worshippers headed for the doors in a mad, chaotic dash as Steel took his hammer to one of the church's angel statues, breaking it into pieces.

One of the young men in the pews, however, responded differently. He grabbed a gun he had in the waistband of his pants and fired three quick shots at Steel.

The sounds of the pistol shots were deafening in the enclosed building and went echoing off the walls of the open room. Several people screamed again, some of them believing that the bullets were coming from Steel rather than one of their own, some of them just panicking at the sound of gunfire.

However, increasing the already high level of fear and disorder in the cult's church was about the only thing the man's attack accomplished; as the bullets bounced harmlessly off of Steel's arm with a series of loud _ping_ sounds.

He _did_ manage to get Steel's attention, though. The man's face paled as he saw the optics in Steel's mask turn to look directly at him. He tried to run, but it was impossible to make much headway in the mass of terrified people. Steel was easily able to swoop down and land right in front of him, the Light of the Divine's parishioners flinching away from the armored figure.

"H-Hey!" the gun-wielding Light of the Divine member exclaimed. "Don't you touch me!"

Steel ignored the warning, wordlessly reaching out and plucking the man's pistol right from his suddenly numb fingers.

"Don't play with guns. They're dangerous," the armored man said in his deep bass voice.

He squeezed down on the gun, and the matte black metal it was made from began to deform in his hands, as though it was no tougher than putty. Steel then dropped the now useless weapon to the floor, where it landed with a surprisingly loud clatter.

The man who'd brought a gun to church with him was vaguely aware of feeling something wet and warm running down the length of his leg.

Fortunately for him, Steel lost interest in him once his weapon was destroyed, and the armored man went back to tearing apart the church itself rather than its parishioners. However, no one was willing to bet that Steel wouldn't eventually turn to flesh-and-blood targets. The church began to rapidly empty out as the first rush of people made it outside and got out of everyone else's way, and, miraculously, no one was trampled during the frantic exodus.

Steel was soon alone in the cult's place of worship.

Almost. The pastor had remained, standing stock still while all his followers had fled.

Now that he and Steel were alone, and the man in the metal suit was swinging his huge hammer at just about everything in the church, leaving incredible destruction in his wake.

And all of a sudden, something inside him snapped.

"You _fiend_!" he roared, grabbing hold of a large candlestick and charging toward Steel.

The makeshift weapon made a loud _klang_ sound as it struck the armored man, and Steel just looked down at the cultist who had delivered the pathetic blow, contempt somehow managing to show in the mechanical optics of the mask.

"How _dare_ you!" the cultist shouted, undeterred by his obvious inability to hurt the invader. "How dare you bring violence to a sacred place like this!"

Steel's hand grabbed hold of the cultist's robes and lifted him off the ground until their gazes were level. "How dare _I_ bring violence?" the armored man said. "You're nothing but a damn hypocrite!"

"No! The Light of the Divine—!"

"Wants the world to end!" Steel cut him off. "You people want the world to end so the chosen—_you_—will go to paradise! You don't care what anyone else wants, and you're trying to help the Angels make the end of the world happen!"

"No, that's not true!" the culist protested. "Our group hopes and prays that Man will cease trying to thwart the will of God, because we know that the longer we defer oblivion, the worse our collective punishment will be! But we don't strike at NERV with anything but our faith!"

"Really?" Steel asked. "Then I guess you won't mind if I look around this place a little more, hmm?"

"Uh, no, wait—"

Steel ignored the cultist, and walked out of the main room of the church, carrying the man. It wasn't long before the armored figure found a door leading to the building's basement.

"No! Don't go down there!" the cultist shouted. "This is private property!"

"Do you really think that after everything else I've done, I'm concerned with _trespassing_?" Steel asked as he descended the stairs into the dark, windowless basement.

A moment of groping along the walls allowed Steel to find the light switch, which the armored figure quickly turned on, illuminating the large basement, which was filled to the rafters with wooden crates.

"Well, what have we here?" Steel asked, going over to one of them.

"No!" the cultist shouted.

The armored man put his hammer on the magnetic plate on his back and tore open the top of one of the crates with his free hand. The wooden box was filled to the brim with wicked looking rifles.

"Hmm, modified for fully automatic firing," Steel observed. "That by itself should get you another ten years in jail."

The defeated cultist didn't answer, instead just slumping in Steel's grip.

"Oh!" Steel observed, noticing something else. "There's no way _that's_ kosher! NERV will definitely have something to say to you and the Light about _that_!"

The armored figure pointed at a series of crudely-made posters that were hung on one of the walls. Each displayed a grainy image of one of the EVA pilots, with crosshairs over each one. A sign above the posters labeled them "Enemies of God."

"I'm surprised you don't have a whole bunch of Kool-Aid down here, too," Steel commented.

"All right!" the cultist exclaimed. "You've made your point! Now just kill me and get it over with!"

"I'm not going to kill you," Steel replied, carelessly tossing the man to the floor. "Like I told your High Apostle, I'm interested in destroying the Light of the Divine, not murdering anybody."

The cultist looked like he was thinking about making a break for it, but before he could, Steel fired the rivet cannon in the arm of his armor. The metal spikes pierced his elaborate robes and then the floor, soundly pinning him.

"After I leave, I'm going to call the police and tell them there's a man trapped down here," Steel said. "When they come to save you, they'll see all this. But I'm also taking pictures to put on the internet, just in case you manage to use your connections to get the cops to let you off the hook."

"Huh?" the cultist said.

Steel ignored him, opening a hidden compartment on his armor and withdrawing a digital camera. The man in the metal suit took several pictures of the basement stockpile and the threatening posters. He didn't put the camera away until the sound of sirens made it obvious that the police were on their way.

"I guess that's my cue to exit," Steel observed, turning back to the cultist. "Sayonara."

The man in the metal suit then dashed up the stairs, leaving the cultist very alone, and pinned down on the floor of the basement, where he would wait until the police arrived to rescue and then arrest him. He sighed.

"And, of course, now my nose itches, too," he grumbled.

* * *

Though Yoshita Takanowa liked to consider himself a bit smarter than average, in his mind, he was a very normal man. He had been born to a middle class family, had gone to college and studied engineering, and through a combination of good fortune and the usefulness of his chosen vocation, he had managed to avoid enduring much hardship in the wake of Second Impact. Not long after the world had begun to stabilize in earnest from that cataclysm, he'd married and his wife had given birth to a baby girl not long afterwards. He'd worked for Hokkaido Heavy Industries for several years, and after the company had collapsed, he'd been lucky enough to land another job fairly quickly.

So, overall, he considered his life to have been good but not exceptional. It certainly hadn't made him into the kind of man who should attract the attention of psychotic individuals.

Yet one had appeared in his home about an hour ago. An hour that had felt about as long as a week.

"It's a very cliché thing for someone in my position to say to someone in your position, but resistance really is futile, Takanowa-san," the man with the rock-like face commented.

He said this in a tone of voice that was perfectly calm, almost cultured even. However, he was also wiping blood off his small but wickedly sharp knife on Takanowa's tie as he spoke, his actions putting the lie to the sophisticated airs his words might have given him.

"Please," Takanowa begged, "I'm telling you, I don't know the information you're after."

The big man in the black suit abruptly belted Takanowa, and his big fists felt like they were made of solid granite. The engineer could feel blood running down the side of his face, and the man suddenly had to stifle a nearly overpowering urge to express his terror and pain by openly weeping like a small child.

"You're the one who's making this drag on," the big man said. "You can end this at any time. All you have to do is tell me who took the prototype Exosuit, and I go away and you never see me again."

"Ichigawa," Takanowa said. "Ichigawa took it."

"You're lying," the big man said, his grip on his knife tightening. "I've told you before, I punish deceit."

"No… please," Takanowa begged, straining uselessly against the bonds that kept him trapped in his chair.

The big man ignored him. The engineer screamed in agony as the mad man made use of his sharp little knife.

Takanowa barely kept himself from breaking down completely after this latest bit of torture. God, where were his wife and daughter? He knew they'd gone out shopping, but they should have been back by now! They should have come home and called the police or something.

"Mrs. Takanowa and your little daughter won't be coming back any time soon," the big man said, as though reading the engineer's mind. "They've been delayed."

"What did you _do_ to them!?" Takanowa demanded, all his concerns about himself suddenly forgotten.

"Now, now, Takanowa-san, that really shouldn't be your first priority right now. But if you tell me who took the prototype Exosuit, I'll let you go so you can check."

"I don't know!" the engineer wailed. "I'm telling you, I don't know! The damn thing wasn't even functional when HHI folded, and even if it had been, the price tag would've been too high for anybody to ever buy the damn thing! So I never gave two shits over who took it! No one did!"

The big man crouched down so he was at eye level with the engineer and took off his sunglasses. His eyes were every bit as cold and as inhuman as Takanowa expected them to be.

"Wrong answer, Takanowa-san," he said in a soft, dangerous voice.

"It's the only one I can give you!" the engineer screamed.

The big man belted him again. Takanowa was amazed that the blow didn't take his head clean off.

"Damn you, man! Do you have any idea what happens to me if I don't GET THAT DAMNED SUIT!?" the big man roared.

Takanowa just quailed in terror. So far, his captor had been absolutely brutal, but until this point, he hadn't lost his temper.

"No, you don't know, do you? How could you?" the big man asked rhetorically. "You don't know, but moreover, you don't care!"

Part of Takanowa wondered why the hell he should care about the fate of the man who'd been tormenting him for the past hour in a quest to gain an answer he didn't have, but the greater part of him was too scared to think.

"I wish I could tell you what you want to know," he said in a small, terrified voice.

The big man chuckled bitterly. "I bet you do," he said. "But you can't. You're as useless as all the others. I am so damn sick and tired of useless individuals like you!"

The blade of his knife flashed orange from the light of the late day sun. Yoshita Takanowa's last thoughts were of his wife and daughter.

* * *

Mana grumbled softly to herself as she worked on the armor in her basement. The few cultists who had tried to fight her the previous day hadn't managed to do any substantial damage to the suit, but they _had_ managed to inflict a number of scratches and scuff marks, which she was stubbornly buffing out.

The last thing she wanted was for the Light of the Divine's members to see Steel becoming progressively more and more beaten up as time went by and thinking they had a chance to stop her. Her alter ego had to appear invincible.

But that didn't mean she had to enjoy repairing and tweaking the suit after every fight she had with the cult.

"I could've gone to the mall after school with my friends, but _noooo_, I had to tell them I already have plans and work on this suit," Mana grumbled to herself as she finished up.

Asuka had actually invited Mana along on a trip she and Hikari had planned, which was a large reversal from the way the German redhead had been keeping her distance ever since Hazumi Kirishima had been attacked.

Mana suspected that Hikari might have prodded the redhead into inviting her along, but she didn't really care. She was just glad that her new friend was at least trying not to keep her at arm's length any longer.

However, she'd turned down the invitation. Partly because the damn armor needed maintenance, and partly because she actually _did_ already have plans, just not ones that necessarily precluded the mall trip.

Speaking of which… Mana checked her wristwatch and her eyes widened.

"Damn," she hissed, quickly putting down the tools she'd been working with and sprinting up the stairs that led her out of her basement and to the ground floor of her home.

Rushing over to her stove, she quickly donned a pair of oven mitts and removed the pots she had the burners. To her relief, the food she found wasn't horrendously burned like she'd feared. In fact, the food didn't look half bad.

_Whew,_ she thought. _Thank goodness. Inviting him over and then having to order out for a pizza would've been the worst._

"And here I was getting all ready to curse myself for not cooking with Bunsen burners tonight," she said to herself.

After taking a moment to peel off the oven mitts and then wash her hands, Mana quickly began to plate the food and set the table. Her doorbell rang just as she was finishing up.

"Right on time," she commented with a smile as she went to answer the door.

"Hello," said the somewhat nervous looking EVA pilot she found on her front porch. "Misato suggested I bring a bottle of wine with me, but when I pointed out that we're too young to drink, she told me to bring this instead." Shinji held out a pint container of chocolate ice cream.

Mana smiled, accepting the small tub. "Thank you," she said. "I'd rather have dessert than wine, anyway. Come inside."

Shinji did so, and he seemed to start at the sight of the dinner Mana had laid out on her small kitchen table. "You didn't have to do any of this, you know," he said.

Mana frowned slightly in confusion; it wasn't as if she'd laid out such an elaborate spread. She was a competent cook, not a master chef, so she'd kept the meal pretty simple.

"Of course I didn't _have_ to do this," she said, gesturing for him to sit down. "I did it because I wanted to thank you for being there to me right after the attack."

"It wasn't a big deal," Shinji said self-depreciatingly.

"Maybe not to you, but I needed someone then, and you were the only one who stepped up," Mana countered.

"I'm sure Asuka would have, if not for, uh, being affected by what happened," Shinji replied.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not mad at Asuka, or Hikari, for that matter," Mana said. "We'd been friends for… what? Two days when the attack happened? You don't expect your friends to help you move your stuff at that point, let alone provide a shoulder to cry on. But you and me had just been chatting with our computers in class and you _did_ help me."

Shinji didn't know quite how to respond to this outpouring of gratitude from Mana, and he looked so obviously uncomfortable that she had to laugh.

"This is the part where you can say, 'You're welcome. I'm glad I was able to help,'" she said.

"'You're welcome. I'm glad I was able to help'," he repeated obediently, causing Mana to laugh again. A small smile appeared on his face, and he seemed to relax at least slightly. "This was very nice of you."

Mana waved her chopsticks in a dismissive gesture. "This is really nothing," she said.

"Maybe not to you," Shinji echoed her earlier words with a trace of humor. "I can't remember the last time someone cooked for me."

Mana frowned at that. "What about Asuka? Or your guardian Misato? Or the guardian you had before you came to Tokyo-3?" she asked.

"My original guardian hated to cook, so he made me do it as soon as I was old enough to use the stove," Shinji answered. "Asuka, well, Asuka cooks sometimes, but she cooks for herself, and just happens to feed me and Misato while she's at it. What I mean is, she'll make European food that she likes."

"Oh, I see," Mana said. "Well, I'm glad that I decided to treat you then."

They lapsed into silence after that. At first the quiet was comfortable, as they both turned their attention to their food. Mana had built up a pretty big appetite while laboring on the suit, and Shinji was just enjoying a Japanese meal that someone else had cooked up for him.

However, as they started to get full and the pace of their consumption slowed, the atmosphere in the kitchen slowly but surely started to get awkward as neither of them talked. Finally, Mana could take it no longer.

"Say something," she said.

"Huh?" Shinji asked, confused by her seemingly random request.

"It's too quiet," Mana said. "So say something. Anything."

"…What should I say?" Shinji asked, the request for him to start a conversation making it all but impossible for him to actually do so.

"I don't know. Anything," Mana said. "Tell me about piloting EVA."

Shinji winced. "I'd rather not talk about that, actually," he said.

"Okay, that's fine. We can talk about something else. Tell me what it's like living with Asuka," Mana said, then realized just how she probably sounded. "Or don't. I invited you over here to thank you. You don't have to stick around and entertain me if you don't want to."

"No, no, it's fine," Shinji said quickly.

In truth, part of him really _did_ want to just beat a hasty retreat. To, in essence, run away from this unfamiliar and uncomfortable situation. However, his fear of appearing to be an ungrateful jerk beat out his discomfort.

Smiling, Mana looked at him expectantly.

Shinji bit his lower lip, picking his words carefully. She'd asked him what living with Asuka was like, and while he could certainly describe the experience (the word "turbulent" immediately sprang to mind), he was all too aware that Mana was friends with the redhead.

Then, from seemingly nowhere, inspiration struck. "Living in the same apartment as Asuka can be… an experience, but it's Misato who really makes that place insane," he said.

"Really?" Mana said gamely. "Do tell."

So he did. He told her about how Misato kept a penguin for a pet (leaving out what he'd done upon discovering the unusual waterfowl for the first time). He told her how his guardian didn't act awake in the mornings until she'd chugged a can of beer. He told her about Misato's atrocious cooking, and how it had once apparently sent Pen-Pen on the penguin equivalent of an acid trip.

Part of him felt bad about saying such things about his guardian. However, another part of his mind pointed out that everything he was saying was true, and with the way Misato constantly teased him, well, this was only fair.

Besides, he liked the way his little anecdotes made Mana giggle. It was a cute sound, and he honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd made someone laugh.

Or at least, he couldn't remember the last time he'd made someone laugh _deliberately_.

In his exchange for his tales of life in the Katsuragi apartment, Mana told him stories about bouncing around the country with her mother, traveling from one military base to another while the elder Kirishima worked on various projects. It sounded like an exciting, if often frantic life to Shinji, and far better than the one he'd lived with his often indifferent guardian before his father had called him to Tokyo-3.

From there, the conversation drifted to various different topics, from Shinji's cello lessons to the time Mana had taken her mother's cell phone apart when she was eight years old in an attempt to figure out how it worked. It was all very irrelevant, but that was okay. Better than okay, in fact. For a while, Shinji didn't feel like the pilot of one of the mechas that were humanity's first and only real line of defense against oblivion, and Mana didn't feel like a techno-empowered superwoman on a quest for revenge. For a little while, they just made each other feel like normal teenagers.

Finally, after the ice cream Shinji had brought with him was gone, the Third Child happened to look up at a clock hanging on the kitchen wall. His eyes widened.

"Is that clock right?" he asked, pointing.

"Hmm?" Mana turned to look at the timepiece in question. "Oh, yeah. I didn't realize how late it was getting."

"Me, either," Shinji agreed with surprise.

He was used to time dragging by slowly when he spent time with other people, not speeding up like it just had.

"I should probably go," he said. "Misato will start wondering where I am soon."

_And if I don't get back soon, she'll probably start implying I was here so long because me and Mana were doing "naughty" things,_ he thought, suppressing a shudder at the imagined teasing.

"Right," Mana agreed. "Here, let me walk you to the door."

The two of them were soon standing on Mana's front porch. Shinji reached up and rubbed the back of his neck nervously, not quite knowing how he was supposed to end this evening.

"Thank you," he said. "I know that you said you did this to repay me, but thanks all the same. It was nice."

Mana smiled at him. "You're welcome," she said softly.

Then she hugged him, the boy who'd unexpectedly found herself in the position of being her rock immediately after her mother had been attacked. She could feel him tense up, and she released him.

"Good night," she said.

"Good night," he replied, sounding dazed, and began to walk off.

Smiling, Mana walked back inside her home and shut the door after herself. That had been nice, she decided. Shinji was pleasant to be with when he allowed himself to loosen up, and for a little while she'd managed to forget that her life had taken a sharp and unpleasant turn a few weeks ago.

But, unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end sometime. With a sigh, Mana headed back down to her basement to finish working on the armor.

* * *

If there was one trait that Captain Chiron and Misato Katsuragi shared, besides their intense loathing for one another, it was their intense loathing for paperwork. At the moment, the Chief of Section Two detested it even more than usual; if not for the reports he had to file, he could've been out in the field, working to get his job off the metaphorical chopping block.

But as he was already on the Commander's bad side, he didn't want to see what would happen if he failed to get all his paperwork done on time.

"Knock-knock," he heard a familiar voice speak from the entrance to his office as a set of knuckles rapped on the doorframe.

"Go away, Sato," Chiron said, not looking up from his work.

"Well, nice to see you, too," the closest thing Chiron had to a friend in Section Two commented sardonically.

"I'm busy," Chiron said, "so unless you have good news, take a hike. You don't have good news, do you?" He added, looking up at his underling with just the barest glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"Unfortunately, no," Sato said. "The last scientist I 'interrogated' didn't know where the Exosuit has gone to, either."

"Then what are you doing here?" Chiron asked. "I need you to go and question another of the scientists who might have that damn armor. There are still plenty of names left on the list."

That much was true, but that number was dwindling rapidly. Chiron tried not to think about what would happened if Section Two's efforts had still borne no fruit by the time the list was gone.

"Yeah, I'll head out in a minute, but first I have to ask you something," Sato said.

"You know, if I ever find myself with a surplus of qualified candidates for Section Two, the first thing I'm going to do is fire your ass," Chiron grumbled.

Obviously confident that this scenario would never come to pass, Sato ignored the comment and continued. "I heard you killed Takanowa," he said.

"Yeah, what of it?" Chiron asked gruffly.

"Why'd you do that?" Sato asked.

"Let me explain something to you," Chiron said rather than answering. "I am _your_ boss. I get to demand that _you_ explain your actions to _me_. Not the other way around."

Sato sighed. "Look, I don't give a crap that the world has one less egghead," he said. "You know I don't. But unnecessary killing tends to make things unnecessarily messy, and you know that, too."

"What are you saying?" Chiron asked.

"Just that finding the guy behind Steel's metal mask is probably gonna get pretty damn hard if the media starts shrieking about how some serial murderer is bumping off all the scientists and engineers who used to work for Hokkaido Heavy Industries," Sato pointed out reasonably. "Steel himself will realize we're after him and might just up and disappear, and all our other suspects will either leave the area or start upgrading their security systems."

"All right, you made your point," Chiron grumbled. "Now get the hell out of here."

Nodding, Sato wordlessly left the room, closing the door after himself.

But Chiron didn't get back to work on his reports. He couldn't seem to concentrate on them any longer. Why the hell had he killed that guy? Sato was right; it had been a stupid move on his part. He hadn't killed any of the half dozen other scientists and engineers he'd grilled for information, just roughed them up a bit and then threatened them to keep them quiet.

"Why did I kill that guy?" he asked himself.

The answer, though, was obvious. His career would end if he didn't find that damned armor soon, and his career was his life. So he'd taken it out on Takanowa. It was a damn stupid thing to do, but why he'd done it was no mystery.

_Should've controlled myself better,_ he thought.

Suddenly deciding that he could get back to his paperwork later, Chiron opened one of his desk drawers and withdrew his gun. Slipping it into his holster, he got up and headed out of his office, planning to find the next genius on his not so little list.

He really needed to be out in the field right now, he decided.

* * *

Clad in the metallic cocoon of the Exosuit, Mana Kirishima flew through the twilight sky of Tokyo-3. Her heart beat at a slow and steady pace, in stark contrast to the way it had jack hammered inside her rib cage the first couple of times she'd gone out as Steel.

She smiled slightly behind her helmet as she thought about how frightened she'd been on her first couple of outings. A thousand nightmarish scenarios had spun through her mind, but in reality, no one had been able to stand against her.

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, she consulted a small window on her HUD that displayed a map of the city. She was just above her destination, which was a building owned by the Light of the Divine where they were supposed to be having services for their remaining crazy followers that evening.

As she'd hoped, the blows she'd struck against the cult were already having an effect. Some of the organization's richer and more respectable members had been forced to leave the cult after the scandal she'd exposed last time, and some others had withdrawn out of fear of Steel. However, by and large, the organization's membership was so far zealous enough to remain loyal to it and defiant in the face of the "man" in the metal suit.

They'd even announced their plans for services that night, much to Mana's amazement.

"Infra-red," she commanded as she hovered over the building the Light owned, and the armor complied, her HUD instantly shifting modes.

Sure enough, she could easily make out the heat signatures of a group of people inside the place, but no sign of police or guards lying in wait anywhere. She wondered if the Light's ability to manipulate law enforcement was waning thanks to her efforts or if the cult had decided to forgo such protection in some foolish show of bravado.

Not that it really mattered to her either way. The important thing was that there would be no third party involved, which was a good thing.

"Infra-red off," she commanded.

Hefting her hammer, she descended toward the building, flying directly toward the place's largest window. A small, savage grin forming on her face, she flew right through the glass barrier, which exploded spectacularly.

"Everyone, I'm afraid this party's over," she announced as she came to a gentle landing on the floor, brandishing her hammer.

The utter lack of panic displayed by the worshippers, in stark contrast to what had happened the last time she'd interrupted the Light's services, was her first clue that something was badly amiss.

The way several of the parishioners produced huge guns that looked bigger than the average bazooka a moment later and leveled them all at her was her second.

* * *

_Several days earlier…_

"Do you have any _bigger_ guns?" the High Apostle asked the arms dealer.

"Absolutely," Toriyama answered with a smile, "but they're not cheap."

"I can pay," the High Apostle said.

"In that case," Toriyama said, "let me show you my special inventory. I think I've got _just_ the thing to solve your mechanical man problem."

The arms dealer lead the cultist into a smaller room of the warehouse he was using as a show room. Inside this room was a table upon which a single firearm lay.

"What is it?" the High Apostle asked as he surveyed the weapon.

The cultist was no expert when it came to war, but at least everything else the other man had shown him so far had looked, to his inexperienced eyes, like more or less normal guns. This thing, however, did not look normal at all. The weapon was thicker than his thigh, and it looked too short for its considerable girth. The barrel was far too large for any type of bullet, and yet, he saw no indication that it was supposed to fire shells or rockets.

"This, my friend, is the crème de la crème of today's shoulder mounted weapons," Toriyama said.

"Then why haven't I heard of it?" the High Apostle asked skeptically. "Why isn't the military using it?"

"Ah, now _that's_ the really impressive part," Toriyama said. "You see, the army saw this baby perform and just decided that it has way more killing power than they'll ever need one soldier to carry around, so they opted to spend their money on cheaper, less powerful guns."

"Show me what it can do," the High Apostle said.

"With pleasure," Toriyama said gamely, picking up the weapon with a grunt. "See those barrels over there?"

The High Apostle looked and saw about two dozen steel barrels standing in the corner of the room. They had doubtlessly been abandoned when the warehouse was, and they were slightly rusty but still sturdy enough.

However, the cultist guessed that even a small pistol could punch holes into the things, and he prepared himself to be unimpressed when Toriyama turned them to Swiss cheese.

"Fire in the hole!" the arms dealer announced with a grin, depressing the trigger.

A blast of orange-yellow light erupted from the weapon, and it was so bright that it momentarily made the High Apostle think that the gun had exploded. He raised his hands to shield his face.

"Well, what do you think?" Toriyama asked smugly.

Lowering his hands, the cultist turned and looked at the barrels.

His eyes widened in surprise. Most of the barrels were just gone, reduced to a pool of molten slag on the floor. A few that had been furthest from the blast had survived relatively intact, but even these were badly melted and deformed, slumping over like wilted plants.

"Impressive," the High Apostle said. "How much for a half dozen of them?"

Toriyama named the figure. The High Apostle winced but agreed.

"Beautiful," Toriyama said. "I'll have them to you by the end of the week."

"Good," the High Apostle said. "By the way, what do you call these guns?"

Toriyama smiled. "Well, the official name for this beauty is the BG-80, but in practice, everybody just calls her 'the Toastmaster'."

* * *

_Present time…_

"Fire!" one of the parishioners shouted, and the six men wielding the huge guns all pulled the trigger.

Half a dozen beams of fiery light crashed into Mana, sending even her hurtling backwards. She let out a small cry as she crashed to the floor, cracking the tile beneath the armor's weight as she did so.

Sweat burst from every pore in her body as the temperature inside her suit spiked to nearly unbearable heights. It suddenly became difficult for her to breathe as the air inside her suit became stifling, and half a dozen warnings flashed across her HUD, telling her that various parts were overheating.

With a groan and a considerable amount of struggling, she managed to get the suit back on its knees.

Just in time to see that the six armed cultists were pointed their stupidly huge guns at her again.

_And I was feeling so self-confident a few minutes ago,_ she thought as they pulled the triggers.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Yes, I actually managed to end something on a cliffhanger. It's been a while since I did that, I think.

Anyway, in case anyone's wondering, the Toastmasters came from the Steel comic book. Personally, I always thought that John Henry Iron's solo book tended to gravitate between mediocre and really weird, but I thought I should probably work with the parts of Steel's limited mythos that I could.

And that's about all I have to say here, so thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

* * *

Omake

Initiation

Standing in the middle of an unfamiliar building with a blindfold fitted snugly over her eyes, Mana wasn't exactly as calm or as comfortable as she'd ever been.

"So everybody has to do this to get full membership into the superwomen's union?" Mana asked.

"Pretty much," Green Lantern answered. "We alter it from time to time, of course. The Martian's was slightly different, for example."

"Oh, okay," Mana said. "So, you're sure this is safe, right?"

There was the distinctive crack of an aluminum can being opened. "Sure, I'm sure!" GL said. "Come on, you can take on a whole, crazy cult no problem but this is beyond you?"

Mana wasn't exactly reassured by the slight slur in her fellow superwoman's voice, but she didn't want to appear a coward. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward.

And fell off the short ledge she'd been standing on.

Even though she was blindfolded, she reflexively squeezed her eyes shut, telling herself that she'd soon land on the mattress or whatever had been laid out to break her fall.

Then someone grabbed her out of the sky, and the auburn haired girl's ears were suddenly filled with German curses as Asuka yelled at Green Lantern.

"She's not a superhuman, you nutcase!" the original Girl of Steel yelled, lapsing back into Japanese. "All her 'powers' come from that metal suit she wears! You can't pull this kind of crap with her!"

Recovering from her surprise, Mana removed the blindfold she was wearing and looked down. Her face paled as she saw where her little swan dive would have taken her if Asuka hadn't intervened.

A vat of what looked like molten lava sat on the ground below her.

A little squeaking sound came from deep back in her throat.

"Sorry about this," Asuka said. "Since a lot of us are invincible, we tend to take hazing to a whole new level."


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Four:** War Against the Light, Part Two

"Fire!" shouted one of the parishioners, and the six men wielding the huge guns all pulled the trigger.

Half a dozen beams of fiery light crashed into Mana, sending her hurtling backwards. She let out a small cry as she crashed to the floor, cracking the tiles beneath her with the armor's weight.

Sweat burst from every pore in her body as the temperature inside her suit spiked to nearly unbearable heights. It suddenly became difficult for her to breathe as the air inside her suit became stifling, and half a dozen warnings flashed across her HUD, telling her that various parts were overheating.

She was dimly aware of the great stampede out of the church; now that the trap had been sprung, the unarmed cult members were beating a hasty retreat. Mana took note of the mass exodus, but didn't spare it a thought, except that she envied the people escaping the building. With a groan and a considerable amount of struggling, she managed to get the suit back on its knees.

Just in time to see that the six armed cultists were pointing their stupidly huge guns at her again.

_And I was feeling so self-confident a few minutes ago,_ she thought as they pulled the triggers.

Mana couldn't help but release a cry of pain as she was knocked into a nearby pew and her world became nothing but horrible, horrible heat. She felt like she was being broiled alive within the very suit that was supposed to protect her.

Dimly, in the tiny corner of her mind that wasn't consumed by the pain and panic, Mana knew that she had to do something, and that she had to do it _now_. She was far from ignorant about the capabilities that the Toastmasters had, and she knew that even her armor couldn't withstand such an assault for very long. And when the armor went out, she would be, well, toast.

Literally.

Ironically, it was the sheer power of the weapons leveled against her that saved Mana. The Toastmasters couldn't fire continuously for very long without melting their own barrels, and the cultists apparently knew it. They ceased fire to allow the weapons to cool down.

A process which didn't take long, Mana knew. So, even though both metal and flesh screamed in protest, she struck while her brief window of opportunity was open, knowing that she wouldn't survive another barrage. With a grunt of effort, she grabbed hold of one of the pews she had crashed into, ripping the already broken seat from the floor and hurling it at the group of cultists. She didn't exactly aim the throw, and unsurprisingly didn't hit anyone. She didn't even force the cultists who held the Toastmasters to drop the oversized weapons in order to escape being struck.

But she did force the group to scatter, and threw them into chaos for moment. Doing her best to ignore the agony she was experiencing, Mana got back to her feet and immediately put some distance between herself and the cultists.

_God, I really hope this doesn't just causes the suit to blow up,_ she thought, using her toes to depress the buttons that would start up her jets.

Both of them coughed disturbingly at first, but then they _did_ ignite without blowing Mana to kingdom come. Deciding that a slow retreat was a greater risk than a quick one, regardless of what the Toastmasters might have done to her armor's systems, she punched it, and soon she was flying out of the church through the hole she'd created on her way in.

Yet even in the sky, she wasn't home free. Her armor's exterior was literally _glowing_ orange with heat, and it didn't feel like the interior was much cooler to her. Repeated warnings flashed across her HUD that the suit's cooling system was on the verge of failure, and she didn't even want to think about what would happen to her if it did. Already, she felt like she being roasted. Sweat poured from her body, but it evaporated off her skin almost as quickly within the stifling confines of the suit. The inside of her armor had acquired a markedly musty smell, but that was the least of her concerns. The auburn haired girl inside the metal shell could barely breathe; the air was too hot.

Mana desperately wanted to shed the armor, or at least remove the helmet. She felt ready to give almost _anything_ for just one breath of the wonderfully cool air that she knew existed just outside the confines of her metal shell.

But she knew that if she did, someone would probably see her, and the game would be up. Everyone would know that it was not a full-grown man who lurked inside of Steel's armor, but a teenage girl. And even if no one saw her closely enough to identity her beyond that, it would be far from impossible to figure out who Steel really was then. No teenage girl besides Mana Kirishima had the means, motive, and opportunity to don the battle suit.

The suffering, panic-stricken girl found herself caught between two exclusive, but equally strong impulses. She wanted to take the armor off, to escape the heat, but she couldn't expose herself to the risk of being seen and identified. The only safe place for her to take the armor off was her own home, and that seemed as far away as the Moon at the current moment.

Mana tried to draw in a deep breath of air and found that she couldn't do it; it was too stifling inside the armor. Fear wrapped its hand around her heart as her panic grew to new levels. Suddenly, she was completely convinced that she would _die_ if she didn't get her temperature down, immediately.

She would have taken the armor off right then and there—consequences be damned—if not what she happened to see through the flurry of warning messages on her HUD.

Lake Ashi.

Using what remained of her focus, Mana instantly set a course for the body of water.

In her rational mind, she knew that this was far from a good idea. Being dunked in cold water would cool the armor off very rapidly, and when solid matter went from one temperature extreme to another, it had a tendency to shatter. Immersing her armor in the water wasn't guaranteed to produce that effect, but it was certainly possible.

Yet she was past the point of caring, and she brought herself down to a graceless landing (barely more than a mild crash, really) in the shallows of the lake without hesitation. There was a loud _hiss_, and a great cloud of white steam which momentarily blinded her rose up from all around her as water boiled furiously and evaporated instantly at the touch of the scorching metal.

"Ahhh," Mana sighed in relief as the temperature inside her suit dropped dramatically.

Not that it actually became cool inside the armor. Really, the interior of the metal shell just went from "fires of hell" hot down to "sauna" hot. But that felt practically chilly to Mana at the moment.

As the steam cleared, she was able to see herself a bit, and observed that the armor was no longer glowing with heat, which was definitely a good thing. The number of warning messages on her HUD had also diminished significantly.

Yet that didn't mean everything was all right; she had no doubt that her armor had been warped in several places, and that was probably the least of her concerns.

"Systems check," she ordered.

Immediately, data began to scroll across her HUD, and Mana winced at what she saw. Almost all of the armor's various backup systems had been engaged, because the primary systems had been knocked out by the assault she'd endured. This was going to take a _lot_ of work to fix.

Noticing that people were already starting to tentatively draw toward her, curious about what had caused the great cloud of steam, Mana rose to her feet. She had to get out of here, she knew. The only question was what her destination should be.

Part of Mana wanted to go back to the Light of the Divine's church and settle the score. She could easily imagine what getting a victory against Steel would do for their morale, and she didn't want them thinking they could win.

Yet having been so soundly defeated had been a brutal reminder of something she'd been forgetting, and something that she had to prevent the cultists from discovering at all costs.

Beneath the armor, she was just a teenage girl. She was smarter than average, yes, but no more suited to going to war because of it. The power armor she hid her identity with was the only thing that gave her an edge over her enemies. If it broke in the middle of a fight, she was done for, and it was already badly damaged.

With a deep sigh, she decided to just head home and beat the Light of the Divine another day.

Stepping out of the shallow water and onto the shore, Mana started the jets in her boots and was soon in the sky, high above the lake. It would only take her a few minutes to get the armor safely back into her basement now.

She could hardly wait to return home, take the armor off, and have a cool shower to rinse off the sweat and the sting of having lost this round so soundly to the Light.

Yet as she went, she couldn't help but think about the weapons the cultists had wielded.

And how those weapons had come to be.

* * *

_Four years ago…_

"Hi, Mommy," ten-year-old Mana said cheerfully as Hazumi entered the tiny studio apartment that was their current home.

"Hello, Mana-chan," Hazumi replied, visibly tired but smiling at the sight of her daughter. "How was your day?"

"Good," Mana replied. "Lieutenant Mizuki showed me around some of the base today. Um, but I sort of lost track of time and wasn't able to start dinner." She added guiltily.

"That's all right," Hazumi said, with a guilty twinge. "I'll do it."

The young girl should have been in school, not touring military bases, Hazumi knew. And she shouldn't have drafted her daughter to the task of starting work on the evening meal for her. But it was an understatement to say that being a single parent was difficult, especially with the way her career was shaping up, and Hazumi did the best that she could.

She only hoped that would prove to have been good enough, years down the road.

Pulling her mind from these weighty thoughts and redirecting it to the far more mundane task of coming up with a quick and easy recipe to make for dinner, Hazumi dropped the small folder she was carrying on the card table in the center of what passed for a dinning area in their home and headed for her miniscule kitchen. She had a feeling that she'd be cooking with the aid of a Bunsen burner again that evening.

She didn't notice that some of her papers had spilled out of her folder, or that Mana was looking at them curiously.

"Mommy, what's this?" Mana asked.

Hazumi looked up and saw that her daughter was pouring over the diagrams from the prototype gun she had brought home with her. "Oh," she said, moving to take the drawings away from little Mana, "that's just something the team's been designing for the military."

"Oh," Mana said, not resisting as her mother plucked the diagrams from her hands.

Hazumi put the papers back in her folder and went back to the task of preparing dinner, assuming that was that.

"Couldn't you increase the power of the gun if you widened the barrel?" Mana asked.

"What?" Hazumi asked, surprise written all over her face.

"Of course, I guess you'd have to worry about the barrel melting, but if you kept the shots brief, that shouldn't be a problem," Mana added thoughtfully.

Dinner suddenly forgotten, Hazumi slowly reached into her folder again and removed the diagrams. She set them on the table so her daughter could see them.

"What would you do to improve this design, Mana-chan?" Hazumi asked.

* * *

_Present Day…_

Mana remembered that day all too clearly, mostly because of the many things that had come from it.

On the one hand, that had been the moment when her mother had realized just how intelligent Mana truly was, and how the precocious child had managed to pick up so much of what Hazumi did. It had allowed the elder Kirishima to realize that building things was an activity the two of them could share. They'd grown closer as a result, and if not for that day, Hazumi might never have taken the armor that Mana now wore when Hokkaido Heavy Industries went bankrupt.

On the other hand, Mana was always a little appalled at herself when she thought back to the experience of helping her mother work on the designs for the BG-80, better known as the "Toastmaster". She had thrown herself to the task with a great level of enthusiasm, the fact that she was gleefully helping design a gun that would be used to kill people never crossing her mind. She was helping Mommy with her work; that was all the too-smart-for-her-own-good little girl had thought about.

Not only that, but her childish zeal was the main reason the gun was so overpowered. Back then, Mana hadn't quite realized that the weapon had to be cost-effective, not just as obscenely destructive as the laws of physics would allow. Her mother probably should have put the brakes on, but she'd been too thrilled to discover that her daughter truly was the prodigy she'd always secretly believed Mana to be. Hazumi's career had taken a hit as a result of the unsuccessful design.

Only a small number of Toastmasters had ever been manufactured, and Mana had assumed that they were sitting forgotten in a warehouse somewhere, quietly rusting. She hadn't given a thought to what might have become of them in years.

Yet now the Light of the Divine had some of them. Now they wielded a terrible power which could stop Steel.

And do a large number of other awful things, as well, Mana began to realize with a feeling of growing trepidation. Just because the mad cultists hadn't yet done anything besides ward off Steel with the weapons didn't mean that they wouldn't, and having Toastmasters might actually make it possible for them to achieve their insane mission of helping the Angels win.

Of course, a Toastmaster would do little more than annoy an Evangelion, but there were other, devastating ways they could employ the guns. With a few of them, it would be possible to sever an EVA's power cable in short order.

And just one could easily bring an unarmored building tumbling down. Mana's eyes widened as she remembered something Shinji had said on her second day of school in Tokyo-3, when the Light of the Divine had picketed the school…

* * *

_Weeks ago..._

"Hello, Asuka. Hi, Shinji," she greeted them. "Say, do you know what in the world is going on here?"

"The Light of the Divine is having one of their stupid protests by the school again," Asuka said, as though that explained everything.

"'Light of the Divine'?" Mana echoed dumbly.

"They're a cult, in case you couldn't guess as much from the goofy clothes," Asuka said. "There are a lot of cults in the city, mostly because some dummkoff in NERV decided it would be a good idea to name the giant monsters we're fighting 'Angels.' They come in all colors of crazy, but this one thinks that the Angels are God's divine judgment and that we should just accept that and let them win."

"Oh," Mana said as the pieces began to fall into place. "So they come and protest at the school because you guys go here?"

"Yeah," Asuka said. "They can't get close to headquarters, and they've never tried this where we live before, maybe because they don't where that is, so they picket the school."

"They know where we live," Shinji put in. "They did this at the apartment once before you got here, Asuka. Misato got really mad, and, well, I don't know what she did, but they never came back."

* * *

_Present day..._

Recalling _that_ little bit of information, Mana suddenly had a very vivid vision of one of the members of the crazy cult standing outside the apartment building where Asuka and Shinji lived, hefting one of the Toastmasters. A single well-placed shot (or a handful of more random blasts) would bring the entire structure crashing down. Shinji and Asuka would never have a prayer of surviving such an attack, and the odds that Section Two could stop it from happening to begin with were slim, especially if the bodyguard force was as incompetent as Asuka had always said.

And all the damn cult needed to pull it off was the idea and one Toastmaster.

_If they do that, or something just as terrible…_

It would be her damn fault. There was just no other way to describe it.

Clearly, she had to destroy the Light's Toastmasters. The only problem was that the cult could easily separate the weapons, give them to different members to hide, and it would be virtually impossible for her to find all of them.

The one opportunity she had to trash all the overpowered weapons was right now.

Mana's face hardened beneath her helmet. This was going to be difficult, she knew, and there was a very good chance that she'd regret it later, but the fact of the matter was, she had no choice. She couldn't let those maniacs hang onto such powerful weapons, which she had helped to bring into being and motivated them to purchase.

She turned around and headed back to the cult's church. Mana was only too aware that the odds were well and truly stacked against her, for probably the first time since she'd started her little crusade. The cultists had weapons which could stop her, they were feeling confident in their ability to use them, and her armor was already half destroyed.

_It's a good thing I've got one thing they don't have anymore,_ she thought as she drew near to the Light of the Divine's place of bizarre worship. _The element of surprise._

* * *

The battered church had nearly emptied out since they had sent Steel running, which was no great surprise, really. Most of the faithful had just been so much window dressing, warm bodies to fill the seats and ensure Steel wouldn't get suspicious about the ambush in the works. They had quickly left the scene as soon as they become unnecessary for the success of the plan.

But the High Apostle didn't care much. Indeed, if anything, he was pleased that they were gone. It left him and his noble crusaders alone to celebrate their victory.

Smiling, the High Apostle filled a small goblet with a bottle of very good wine he'd had ready for this (truly inevitable) occasion and held it out in a toast. His crusaders were already holding their own glasses.

"To victory over the mechanical menace," he said. "Truly, the forces of God have triumphed this day."

They all drank to that, but one of his mighty crusaders looked worried and discontent.

"What troubles you, Dai?" the High Apostle asked.

"Oh, I don't want to spoil the festivities with my paranoid fears," Dai said quietly, looking embarrassed.

"Nonsense," the High Apostle said. "You stood and defended the Light with us. You have the right to speak your mind."

Dai ran his fingertip around the rim of his glass absently for a second, but stopped immediately and pulled his hand back when his movements caused the fine crystal to begin releasing a quiet but clear note.

"I was just hoping that we'd stop him for good," Dai said. "This way… yes, we chased the metal man off, but he's still free to come back."

"True, this wasn't as grand a victory as we might have wished, but it was a victory all the same," the High Apostle said. "We have proven that even the mechanical devil can be defeated. We have proven that Steel is vulnerable if you simply throw enough firepower at him, not some invincible—"

He cut off abruptly as he heard it, as they all heard it. The unmistakable sound of the small jets in Steel's metallic boots. The armored man had not entered by smashing through a window and sending a shower of broken glass cascading into the cult's church, because he'd come inside through the same window he'd broken through when entering the first time.

The cultists would have preferred it if he'd been loud about it; that way, they would have had a second or two more to react, and those two seconds might have made all the difference.

Because in those two seconds, the highly sophisticated computer in Steel's armor managed to acquire not one, but two target locks. Steel raised his arm, and the rivet cannon on his forearm spat out a small bar of metal, then he immediately moved and fired another.

Both of the metal projectiles struck one of the Toastmasters at a high velocity, shattering the barrels of the weapons and reducing them to so much scrap.

"Shoot him!" the High Apostle yelled, pointing up at Steel.

The crusaders that still had functioning weapons immediately pointed them up at Steel and fired.

If there was one thing the man in the metal suit was not, it was agile. The brute was like a walking tank that could fly, and while he could move fast, he couldn't change directions quickly. The High Apostle felt confident that his crusaders would soon blast him out of the sky as he tried to weave and dodge in midair.

The only problem was that Steel did not attempt to do that. Instead, the armored man cut the jets in his boots. He immediately plummeted toward the ground, landing on his feet with enough force to break the church's marble floor and send bits of it flying. The fire from the Toastmasters crashed pointlessly against one of the walls of the church, blowing a substantial hole into it.

The Light's crusaders moved to take aim at Steel again without the High Apostle having to say anything, but the man in the metal suit had already begun to sprint forward.

The High Apostle knew his crusaders were all lion-hearted, true believers, but they were not trained soldiers. At the sight of a man clad in mechanized power armor that probably weighed about a ton charging directly at him, they panicked and scattered one and all.

Steel easily caught up to the slowest member of the group, grabbing his shoulder with an iron grip that caused the brave warrior of the Light to release a hiss of pain. Steel easily plucked the Toastmaster from his hands and crushed the powerful weapon into a ball of scrap metal between his armored hands.

About ten feet away, Dai and one of the crusaders had managed to more or less regroup, and they again took at Steel. However, they both hesitated to actually fire, and the High Apostle could easily figure out why.

Steel still held the member of the Light whose toastmaster he had just destroyed. And the huge guns were not the most accurate of weapons; if they fired at Steel, they would surely kill their comrade as well.

"Fire!" the High Apostle commanded. "Shoot him!"

Oblivion was the _goal_ of the Light of the Divine. The brave crusader who went with Steel would arrive at Heaven sooner than the rest of them, and in any case, they all had to be ready to sacrifice themselves for the cause.

But still Dai and the other hesitated. Steel did not; the armor man hurled the crusader he held at Dai and his companion. The hapless man soared through the air, screaming the whole way.

Then he crashed into Dai and his companion, soundly knocking the pair of them over. The two Toastmasters they'd held went flying from their hands and landed on the floor with a loud clattering sound.

Steel immediately pounced, his heavy, metal boots leaving cracks in the marble floor as he ran. One of those big boots came crashing down one of the Toastmasters, breaking it in half easily. Steel's hammer slammed down upon the other, shattering it with even more finality than its brother.

That left one intact Toastmaster in the hands of the Light of the Divine. The High Apostle looked left and right, frantically searching for the crusader who held it… and soon realizing that he'd made at least one bad selection on who should defend their holy organization from Steel. The last armed "crusader" was just standing there, frozen with fear, and clutching his weapon in badly-shaking hands.

Scowling deeply, the High Apostle quickly made his way over to the man. "Give me that," he hissed, snatching the last toastmaster away from him and pointing it at Steel. "Die, abomination!"

He pulled the trigger. The man in the metal suit saw the attack coming, and in an act of desperation, he tore one of the pews from the floor and held it up, using it as a makeshift shield. However, the Toastmaster made short work of the wood, reducing it to ashes almost instantly. The beam of bright light struck him in the side, and Steel's armor almost immediately started to glow orange with heat again. The armored man took a few, slow steps toward the High Apostle, but he fell to his knees before he was within striking distance.

The High Apostle pressed down on the trigger harder, even though that was hardly necessary.

"Stop firing!" Steel exclaimed.

"Never!" the High Apostle shouted. "I'll melt that armor, heretic!"

"No, you idiot!" Steel snapped. "The gun can't—"

But it was too late; the intense heat from the weapon's fire had already softened some of the metal that composed the Toastmaster. The beam's path began to travel downwards as the half-melted barrel started to droop like a plant deprived of water. The High Apostle realized that something was wrong.

Then the barrel practically exploded, spraying nearly molten metal in several directions. The High Apostle was almost miraculously unwounded by the ruination of the final Toastmaster, but the force of it sent him tumbling backwards.

"Looks like you lose again," Steel said. "Until next time."

The jets in the metal man's boots activated once more, and the man who'd declared war upon the Light of the Divine flew from the church.

The High Apostle slammed his fist on the floor in impotent rage.

* * *

Chiron didn't like this. He didn't like it at all. It was all getting way too damn familiar.

_Déjà vu all over again,_ he thought, then hated himself for allowing the overused phrase to so much as enter his mind.

Still, cliché though the saying was, it was also painfully apt; Chiron had seen this scene too many times. Him and the scientist he'd ambushed and then tied to a chair. Him and the useless bag of overeducated flesh who had never, ever expected something like this to happen to him.

It had all become so familiar to him that these outings were starting to blur together in his mind. The Chief of Section Two realized with a start that he had forgotten the name of the hapless scientist before him. It was like they were all the same person over and over again.

He squashed his feelings of surprise. It wouldn't do to have the latest scientist—whatever his name was—see that he was nonplussed. Showing weakness to the person you were interrogating was a cardinal sin in his line of work.

"Tell me," Chiron said, "who has that armor?"

He flipped the switch blade he held open and shut as he interrogated his latest subject. As a professional, he could justify bringing it because it was an excellent tool for both intimidating and inflicting pain. However, his real reason for bringing the stupid thing in place of his regular knife was just to alter some detail about this time.

It wasn't really working. The new prop only seemed to emphasize how little _else_ had changed.

"I don't know who took it!" the scientist whose name Chiron had forgotten said, sweat running down his face. "I never cared! That suit was an overpriced piece of crap!"

"Oh, wrong answer," Chiron said in a soft, dangerous voice, continuing to play with his knife.

He absently decided to leave the switch blade at home next time. It made him feel like a petty street punk trying to look tough, rather than the professional that he really was.

However, the scientist didn't seem to feel the same way. His eyes never left the knife the head of Section Two held, even as he tried to convince the man in the black suit that he wasn't the right target.

"If I could give you the answer you wanted, I would, but I can't," the scientist said.

Chiron stopped playing with the switch blade he held in his hands. It ended up being closed. He bent down so he was level with his captive, leaning close enough to the man to smell the subtle reek of his sweat.

"I don't think you understand," Chiron said. "If I don't find that armor soon, I'll lose my job."

"Uh, I'm very sorry about that, but—"

"I know, from your perspective, that doesn't seem like such a big deal," Chiron continued on, ignoring the man. "_Especially_ in your current position, being unemployed probably doesn't seem like a large problem at all. But it is to me."

The bound scientist didn't dare to offer a reply.

"You see, I'm not exactly your typical man," Chiron said. "I'm never going to have a child. I don't go out drinking with the guys on Saturday nights. The only thing I really love to do is, well, what I do for a living. I am _not_ going to lose my job, you understand?"

Realizing that some kind of response was obviously warranted, the scientist nodded fearfully.

"Good," Chiron said. "Now, I'm past the point of caring about what you know or what you don't know. You _are_ going to tell me where that armor is."

He flipped the switch blade he held open again. The scientist screamed.

* * *

Several hours later, Chiron awoke to find himself laying on the floor of the scientist's room. The first thing he became aware of was the ache in his right hand. He looked down at it to realize that he was clutching his damn knife in an extremely tight grip. Opening his hand, he found that the blade's handle had left a deep indentation in his palm that would likely take hours to fade.

Nor was this even remotely close to the most shocking thing. Chiron's dark suit was stained with blood, which had long ago dried to become a dark brown color. It was hard to see against the black material, but not impossible. No, not impossible at all.

He knew from the smell alone that he'd killed the scientist whose name he couldn't even remember, but he still felt the need to look. The sight of the man, or what remained of him, made even Chiron grimace slightly.

But far more disturbing than the sight of the corpse was that he had no memory of doing that to the unhelpful egghead. He'd just… blacked out.

It was a damn good thing that this guy didn't have any family to come home and find him passed out on the floor, Chiron realized.

The chief of Section Two eventually rose from the floor, his joints popping as he did so. He wasn't as young as he'd been back in the good old days, before he'd gotten kicked out of the Japanese intelligence agency.

He surveyed the room for a moment before taking his leave. The place was utterly destroyed, in addition to having been half painted with blood.

"Sato is never going to let me hear the end of this," Chiron grumbled to himself before leaving.

* * *

Two days after trashing the Light's Toastmasters, Mana knew she should have been in her basement, repairing the armor. As she had feared, several sections of it had been warped by the intense heat it had endured, and many of the more delicate onboard computer components had been ruined entirely. Indeed, Mana wasn't entirely sure how she'd manage to acquire all the replacement parts she'd need to get the armor functioning at peak efficiency again without attracting undue attention, so she really should have been figuring that out.

But was she at home, working on that like a good girl? Nope. She was at the mall with Asuka and Hikari, looking through the selection at one of the place's clothing stores.

"What about this one?" Hikari asked, taking a dress off of one of the racks and holding it up to herself.

"It's nice," Mana said.

"Yeah, it is, but it looks too long for you," Asuka added.

"I can hem it easily enough," Hikari decided, taking the dress.

Mana felt a little uneasy about going out like this, but she figured that even Steel needed a break sometimes. Besides, the last thing she wanted to do was to send Asuka and Hikari the message that she didn't want to be their friend anymore, and she feared she'd do just that if she continuously rebuffed their offers to hang out together, now that they were extending those offers again. She had already turned them down once so she could have dinner with Shinji, after all.

"I think it might be best if we stopped for today, Asuka," Hikari said. The redhead looked reluctant to quit; she always was once they'd started a good shopping spree, but the class rep was ready with a logical argument. "We've got a lot of stuff here already, and we do need to carry it all home, after all."

"Good point," Asuka grudgingly agreed. "Want to head to the food court and get a snack before we leave?"

The other two girls quickly gave their ascent, and they headed out, weighed down by the several shopping bags they were all carrying.

"Ugh, we should bring some guys with us to carry all this stuff next time," Mana said jokingly.

Hikari smirked. "The problem with that is that we don't have boyfriends."

"So what?" Mana replied with a grin. "Asuka's the most popular girl in school. She could practically just snap her fingers and have the half the guys in our class ready to haul our stuff around for us."

Asuka released a 'hmph' at that, but the redhead was clearly amused. "I am _not_ giving some baka the idea that I like him and have him follow me around like a lost puppy for weeks just because we could use a pack mule," she proclaimed.

They arrived at the food court soon after that, each of them getting a frozen yogurt. The evening had been nice, Mana thought, but it hadn't been quite like the very short-lived "old days." Though Asuka had tried to hide it, Mana had noticed that the redhead had been guarded.

Mana suspected that Asuka was secretly very afraid that she might start talking about the experience of having a mother in a coma. Mana had deliberately kept the conversation light, staying away from any weighty matters. Asuka had eventually relaxed somewhat, but Mana could sense her friend was still slightly on edge around her.

She knew it shouldn't matter to her, at least not much, but it was a constant reminder that things were no longer as they had been. It kept Mana from being able to pretend that she was just a normal teenage girl again, like she could with Shinji.

After finishing the snack, the three girls went their separate ways, and Mana boarded a bus that would take her and her new purchases home. She spent most of the ride wondering if one could order replacement fuel lines for miniature jet engines off the internet and get them sent to a post office box without raising any red flags.

Eventually, she arrived at her home, and was shocked to find a man in an olive-green military uniform sitting on her front porch, holding a pizza box.

Mana blinked, stunned, as she took in the unexpected sight of Colonel Hiro Sakai, the man who was, at least on paper, her guardian.

"Colonel!" she called as she got off the bus and walked toward him. "What are you doing here?"

Setting the pizza box down, Colonel Sakai stood, his knees popping slightly as he got to his feet. The officer looked older than Mana remembered him; there was more gray at his temples, his facial features had softened a bit, and his waistline had expanded somewhat. However, she still thought he looked very distinguished. Dapper, even.

_Must be the uniform,_ she thought distantly, not feeling very amused. In other circumstances, she would have been glad to see him, but now wasn't exactly the best time for her.

"Hello, there, Mana," he said. "I had some leave, and I thought I should come and see you, considering the situation."

"You should have called," Mana said, feeling significantly more emphatic about that sentiment than she let on. "I could have saved you from sitting here and waiting for me."

"Oh, it hasn't been very long," Sakai said, something Mana felt almost positive was a lie. "And I wanted to surprise you. I brought dinner."

"Oh, but wouldn't you rather go out somewhere?" Mana asked hopefully. "The place is a mess."

"I'm sure it's just fine, Mana," he replied with a smile.

The auburn haired girl suddenly felt pretty sure that his reason for dropping on her unexpectedly was to more or less perform a surprise inspection on how she'd been living since her mother had fallen into a coma, and she had been left alone. He probably wanted to check that she wasn't constantly partying or something, and that she was up to the task of looking after herself.

Given that he'd be the one who had to answer for it if Mana got into serious trouble, she couldn't logically blame him for this, though she was still annoyed at his ambush tactics. Even worse, she wasn't entirely sure if there was anything upstairs that would betray what she'd been doing or not.

Yet she had no choice but to let him in. With a great deal of reluctance that she hoped she was adequately concealing, Mana unlocked her front door and allowed him inside.

So far as cleanliness went, the place really wasn't _that_ bad. True, Mana hadn't gotten around to dusting anything or vacuuming, but it hadn't been so long that everything was coated with an inch of dirt, thankfully. However, various small components of the suit that Mana had been trying to fix were scattered messily all over the coffee table in the living room. The auburn haired girl winced slightly at the sight, but it could've been worse. There was no way for Sakai to even guess what the pieces went with.

"Still as much of a gearhead as your mother, I see," Sakai commented.

Mana gave him a small, sheepish smile. "I've always liked to build things," she said, then her tone grew sad, "and right now I almost feel like I need to. It keeps my mind off… things."

A small, guilty twinge crossed Sakai's face, and despite herself, Mana felt pleased to have caused it. She was still a little annoyed at him for dropping in on her like this.

"I'm sure the police will find the ones responsible for what happened to your mother, Mana," he said softly.

_Fat chance,_ Mana thought.

"I hope so," she said.

"And Hazumi will wake up, of course," Sakai added. "You were right when you said she was a fighter. Besides, even now, I'm sure she knows you still need her."

Mana felt her eyes suddenly grow moist, and she just nodded silently by way of reply.

She led him toward the kitchen, and her face paled at what she saw resting on the table there: one of the mechanical gauntlets from the Steel suit. She belatedly remembered that she'd been trying to repair the relatively delicate servomotors in the fingers before she'd gone out with Asuka and Hikari.

_Crap,_ Mana thought, wracking her brain as she tried to figure out what to do, knowing that the colonel was only a step behind her.

_If he sees that, he'll figure out that I'm Steel for sure, unless he's been living in a cave recently and hasn't heard about "him" yet,_ she thought, coming to a dead stop.

"Mana?" Sakai asked, wondering what the holdup was.

She took a few steps forward, then, with a sudden flash of inspiration, put the shopping bags she was still holding on the kitchen table, obscuring the view of the Steel gauntlet.

"Sorry," she said, "I'm just a little embarrassed about you seeing the place this messy."  
"This isn't bad at all," Sakai said, looking around. "But, ah, don't we need the table clear so we can eat?"

"Oh, of course! I don't know what's wrong with me today!" Mana exclaimed with a phony little laugh, hoping he couldn't see her sweating.

She rushed back over to her bags, and with an effort managed to slip the gauntlet into one of the sturdier ones. It landed atop a small pile of clothing, which cushioned its fall and prevented it from releasing a _klunk_ as it hit the table top.

"Here, let me help you," Sakai said, and, to Mana's horror, picked up the bag containing the gauntlet. He grunted in surprise at discovering how heavy it was. "Wow, Mana, what did you buy?"

"Tools," she answered at once, an appropriate answer springing to her lips immediately, and seeming to come from someplace other than her brain, which had gone blank upon hearing his question. "And some parts for my latest project."

Sakai muttered something about the Kirishima women that Mana couldn't quite make out, and then asked her where she wanted the bags. Not wanting to take the risk that she'd left other identifiable parts of the armor out somewhere besides her basement and had forgotten about it, Mana told him to just leave her things in the living room.

With the threat of discovery finally averted, Mana and Sakai sat down to eat. Or at least they did after she microwaved some of the pizza he'd brought; the food was only lukewarm, proving her suspicions about him having waited on her porch for a good long time to be true.

"So how have you been doing so far?" he asked after a couple of minutes of them eating in silence. "I know this has to be a difficult situation."

"I'm…all right," Mana said. "I've been better, of course, but I'm getting along. My grades dropped for a while, but I think I'm back on track. I made some friends here before…it happened, and they're helping me."

"That's good to hear," Sakai said. "How has your mother been doing? Has there been any sign she'll wake up soon?"

Mana winced slightly, realizing she wasn't entirely sure about the answer to his question because of how rarely she'd been going to visit her mother. Part of it was because she was so busy trying to both hold her life together alone and be Steel at the same time. Part of it was because she hated seeing her mother lying there, motionless and looking almost lifeless. Still, she felt that a good daughter would suck it up, make the necessary time, and visit her mom in the hospital.

"No changes so far," she said quietly.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Sakai said, "but I do still feel confident she'll come back to you."

Very much wanting to change the subject, because the current one both made her feel guilty and threatened to cause her to start crying, Mana blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. "I've also been seeing this boy."

"_Have_ you now?" Sakai asked.

Mana winced. "It's not like that, Colonel, really, it isn't," she said. "He hasn't tried anything. He just comforted me after Mom was attacked. He's very sweet."

"Hmm," Sakai made a thoughtful sound, clearly not entirely convinced. "Well, if he tries to take any liberties with you, just tell him you have friends in the military. Ones with guns."

Mana smirked, not sure what was more amusing, the idea that Shinji would get fresh with her and try to pressure her into doing things with him she didn't want to do, or that she should basically try and threaten him with Colonel Sakai, making the EVA pilot think that the aging officer with the slowly but steadily increasing waistline was basically a Japanese Rambo.

The conversation moved to lighter topics after that, and Mana found herself relaxing in his company. She forgot her irritation at his abrupt arrival, and remembered that she liked the man.

Indeed, while the idea of her mother remarrying had always filled Mana with trepidation whenever she contemplated the possibility, if she'd had to pick someone to be her "new daddy," she would have selected the colonel.

All of it made her feel very guilty about the huge secret she was keeping from him, especially because she knew it would create all kinds of trouble for him if it ever got out.

Yet she was still not very tempted to tell him about what she was doing, and she certainly didn't consider abandoning her crusade against the crazy cult. Stopping the Light of the Divine was something she _had_ to do. It was just that simple. Much as she didn't like it, lying to the colonel was a necessary evil.

So after he had finally left, Mana went back to the business of repairing her suit of power armor.

However, she didn't go back to her basement to resume the work of trying to pound parts that had been warped by the heat back into shape. Not that there wasn't still plenty of that left to do, but even after her day of relative leisure, she was still feeling sore from her efforts yesterday.

So instead she got on her computer, planning to surf the internet in search of an online vendor willing to sell the replacement parts she needed. First, though, she decided to check her email.

Mana inhaled sharply when she saw the email that sat at the top of her list of new messages. The subject line read "Hello, Steel."

_Oh god, has that damn cult figured out who I am somehow?_ She wondered, feeling panic rising up inside of her and threatening to overwhelm her.

Mana calmed herself only with a great deal of effort, by telling herself that the Light of the Divine wouldn't play games with her if they knew she was Steel. More likely, they'd come after her immediately, or perhaps send the police after her, if their influence over the city's law enforcement agency hadn't waned as a result of her efforts.

No, it wasn't the cult that had sent this to her, but that didn't mean whoever it was didn't mean her ill. In fact, Mana thought, there was a very good chance that the sender planned to blackmail her with the knowledge of her alter ego.

Feeling like the email could only contain bad news, but knowing that ignoring it wouldn't help her, Mana reluctantly clicked on the message.

It wasn't at all what she expected.

There were no demands, no threats to make her secret identity public. The message wasn't even "I'm standing right behind you" as some small, irrational part of Mana's mind had believed it would be.

Instead it just read, "Thought you might have a use for these."

The message was not signed, and the sender's address had been blocked.

Mana quickly downloaded the multiple files which were attached to the email and began to examine them. They appeared to be copies of intercepted e-mails and recorded phone messages between members of the Light of the Divine, and they were all about one topic.

The cult's plans to take out at least one of the Evangelions' power cables during the next Angel attack.

Mana's first thought was that this was a trap set by the cult for her, but that idea soon ran into the reasoning for why the Light of the Divine would never send her an email to begin with. If they knew who she was, they wouldn't bother with some elaborate trap. They'd just attack her when she wasn't in her metal shell.

"Of course, that doesn't make whoever sent me all this trustworthy," she mused aloud, turning her attention to the computer screen.

For the next two hours, Mana tried every trick she knew to try and trace the origin of the mysterious email, her mission to repair the Steel armor momentarily forgotten. Yet despite her not inconsiderable computer skills, she just kept hitting one dead end after another.

Finally surrendering with a groan of frustration, Mana leaned back in her chair, rubbing her sore eyes. "Oh, this is impossible," she grumbled. "Whoever did this was _scary_ good."

Taking a deep breath, Mana sat up straight and looked at the mysterious email again. She still didn't trust it; just because it _probably_ hadn't come from the Light didn't mean that the sender had good intentions toward her.

_But I can't risk ignoring it, either,_ she thought grimly. _If those nut jobs _do_ manage to sever an EVA's power cable, and they pick just the right moment…_

Mana suddenly had an awful vision of the violet EVA and the red EVA going dead in the middle of combat against an Angel, leaving them defenseless against the might of their enemy.

The auburn haired girl sighed. She had to get her armor repaired, and she had to do it before the next Angel attack.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I have to confess that for a good while, I wasn't quite sure where I was going with this fic, but lately it all feels like it's coming together. Which, needless to say, is definitely a good thing.

**Quathis,** originally, I was going to have the Toastmasters be just dangerous weapons, but your comment reminded me that I really should find some way to connect them to Mana and/or Hazumi. Just because I'm not all that enamored with Steel's personal mythos doesn't mean I shouldn't try and respect it, after all, and I think this chapter came out better for it. So, thank you very much for that.

**Animefan29,** a pretty high melting point, apparently. I have to confess I'm just sort of mimicking the Steel comic book in this regard. John Henry Irons took a similar assault, and with similar results.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

Now for a little fun.

* * *

Omake

Rule of Cool

_And I was feeling so self-confident a few minutes ago,_ she thought as they pulled the triggers.

Mana couldn't help but release a cry of pain as she was knocked into a nearby pew and her world became nothing but horrible, horrible heat. She felt like she was being broiled alive within the very suit that was supposed to protect her.

For one, terrible moment, she was certain that she was going to die.

Then a loud, inhuman roar tore through the air, and the cultists all stopped firing, looking about as stunned and frightened by the sound as Mana felt.

Then she entered Mana's field of vision, a green giantess that had to seven feet tall if she was an inch, her frame covered in multiple layers of steel-hard, rippling muscle. Only the shredded remains of a black dress preserved her modesty, and then only barely. Mana had no idea how the meager scraps of cloth around her impossibly large chest remained intact.

"She-Hulk smash!" she roared as she charged the cultists with surprising speed for someone so damned large.

A few members of the Light managed to fire their Toastmasters at her, but the deadly blasts struck her jade skin with no more effect than a flashlight's beam, and seconds later, the She-Hulk had torn the weapons from the cultists hands and shattered them.

Then the green giantess began to attack the cultists themselves, her enormous fists (each one at least the size of Mana's head, the armored girl noted), crashing into the men with devastating effect.

Eventually, Mana somehow heard a soft crunching sound in the midst of the battle, and she turned to look toward the source.

Sitting in one of the few intact pews within the cult's church was the author, munching on popcorn and watching the She-Hulk pound on the members of the Light of the Divine.

Mana managed to get herself to her feet and walked over to him. She removed her helmet as she went, secure in the knowledge that this was an omake, so nothing she did here would affect the main story.

"Mike?" she asked.

"Oh, hey, Mana," he replied, not taking his eyes off the She-Hulk for an instant. "Popcorn?"

"No, thank you," she said.

He shrugged and continued to watch the very one-sided battle unfold.

Mana sat down next to him, being careful to lower herself down slowly so that the armor's weight wouldn't destroy the pew. Even so, the wood creaked as she settled down.

"So, you brought the She-Hulk in," she said.

"Uh-huh."

"You realize that this doesn't make a whole of sense, even by omake standards, right?" she asked.

"Yup."

"So…what's the logic behind it?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, there is none, really," he said absently. "There's no punchline to her appearance here."

A large drop of sweat formed on the back of Mana's head. "So why'd you do it?"

"Because the She-Hulk is awesome," he replied simply. "Do I need a reason beyond that?"

Mana shrugged. "Hmm, I guess not," she agreed, turning her full attention to the She-Hulk and the cultists. Despite herself, she winced when the gamma-empowered woman landed a particularly hard blow. "Ow, he'll be feeling that in the morning."

"He'll be feeling that for a whole _lot_ of mornings," the author replied.

"_She-Hulk smash!_"

"And afternoons, and evenings…"


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Five:** A Change in the Status Quo

"You did what?" Mana asked.

She was walking home from school, and Shinji had offered to walk with her. She hadn't wanted to reject him; thanks to her "extracurricular activities", turning down her friends' offers to hang out had become an all-too common occurrence. Unfortunately, she found that she was having trouble keeping her mind focused on the conversation.

"I came out on top after the last sync test," he said.

"Sync test?" Mana echoed dumbly.

"Oh," Shinji said with embarrassment, realizing he had been throwing around jargon that she didn't understand. "It's sort of a measure of how well you can control EVA. I thought you'd know about that somehow, since your mother worked on the Jet Alone and everything."

Mana shook her head. "We knew some things about the Evangelions, but NERV always made sure to keep the details secret," she said. "But I'm happy that you're doing well. Congratulations."

"Thanks," Shinji said with little enthusiasm.

Mana arched an eyebrow. "You don't sound very pleased with yourself," she remarked.

"Hmm, oh, well, I guess I am kind of proud," he said with a sheepish grin, "but Asuka was so pissed off about it…"

"Oh, well, Asuka can get pretty…defensive, I guess," Mana said awkwardly, not wanting to say bad things about her friend.

Shinji made a noncommittal noise in response, and for a few minutes, their walk was a silent one. Mana's mind began to wander to problems she couldn't speak about with Shinji.

"Really, it's just a number," the Third Child spoke up again out of the blue, apparently needing to vent about the topic. "It's not like it invalidates all her training or anything. I don't see why she has to get so angry about it."

"Excuse me?" Mana said, not having heard him.

He frowned slightly. "You're very distracted today," he commented.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm sorry," Mana said as she again pulled herself from her thoughts. "It's just that my grades really took a nosedive after, well, you know, and I guess I'm worried about getting them back up."

"Oh," Shinji said, immediately feeling bad about getting annoyed with her. "I'm sorry to hear that. I wish I could do something to help you, but you're smarter than me, so…" he trailed off awkwardly.

Mana didn't pick up the thread of the conversation again, and so they traveled the short distance to her home in silence. It wasn't until they reached her porch that they spoke once more.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow," Shinji said. "Good luck with your grades."

"Thanks," she said, mustering a small smile. "And congratulations again about that sync score thing. I'll take you someplace to celebrate later, when I actually have a little time."

Shinji blushed. What Mana was proposing sounded quite a lot like a date to him. He was sure it wasn't, really; a cute, brilliant girl like her would _never_ want to date him. Regardless, even that knowledge couldn't quell the feeling of heat in his face.

"You don't have to," he muttered.

"I'd _like_ to, but I can't right now," she replied with as much cheer as she could summon. "So, I'll see you around, Shinji."

"See you," Shinji replied.

He headed back toward the sidewalk, and Mana slipped into her home, heaving a sigh the moment she closed the door. She hated the way that being Steel tended to interfere with her life as a (mostly) normal teenage girl. From being unable to spend time with her friends, to constantly worrying about her enemies, the whole 'double life' thing just…_sucked_.

Still, as much as she was growing to dislike being Steel, she couldn't stop now. Not because she was addicted to it, or even because she hadn't finished getting her revenge yet; thwarting the Light of the Divine was now more important than ever.

_I wonder if the real Girl of Steel has these problems,_ she thought as she dropped her schoolbag on the kitchen table and walking away, not giving much thought to her homework. Despite what she'd told Shinji, what she had _really_ been preoccupied with was waiting down in the basement.

Despite her best efforts, the armor was nowhere near one hundred percent repaired, and she wasn't entirely sure it ever would be. Some of the parts which had been damaged in her last confrontation with the mad cult—particularly the specialized computer circuitry necessary to make the suit's advanced machinery actually _work_—were proving difficult if not impossible for her to replace. She was forced to jury rig in components that weren't _quite_ right for the things she was forcing them to do.

"And of course," she grumbled, looking over her tools, "I'm in a race against time here, and I don't know many seconds are left on the clock."

The mysterious email she had received continued to haunt her, during both the day and night. She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept without having some nightmare, or the last time she'd gone an hour without worrying about it; if that message was to be believed, then the next time an Angel attacked the city, the Light of the Divine would strike the Evangelions' power cables. If they picked just the right moment, the consequences of their sabotage could well be lethal for all three pilots, two of whom Mana considered good friends.

"So Steel had better be ready to stop the nut jobs by the time the next Angel shows up," she said with a sigh, grabbing a butane torch and a welder's mask.

It was time to get back to work.

* * *

Someone was knocking on the door to his office, Chiron noted with annoyance, not immediately looking up from the rapidly dwindling list of scientists who'd been involved in making the Exosuit. The Chief of Section Two was in no mood for visitors, and he ignored the sound, hoping whoever was making it would go away.

Unfortunately, they didn't. The knocking persisted, and in fact gradually became louder.

"Enter," Chiron finally growled.

The door swung open, and the leader of NERV's secret police force was unsurprised to see his most trusted agent walk inside. Sato did a double take the moment he lay eyes on his boss.

"You look like crap," he blurted out.

"And you're not getting a raise until _2050_," Chiron snapped irritably in response.

It was a childish retort, and he knew it. He also knew that he did, in fact, look like crap. His clothing was rumpled, his hair was greasy and unkempt, and his eyes were probably bloodshot. He absently ran a hand over his jaw and found that he had more stubble than he could call a five o'clock shadow, too.

He hadn't been able to rest much lately; these days he tossed and turned endlessly whenever he went to bed, only managing to sleep when exhaustion overwhelmed him. And with his sleep schedule wrecked, he apparently hadn't been finding enough time for grooming.

_More important to keep working on this anyway,_ he told himself, turning back to the papers and almost forgetting that Sato was even in his office.

The agent cleared his throat, getting Chiron's attention back. "Heard you killed another scientist," he said.

"What of it?" Chiron grumbled, but he sounded oddly sullen, even to his own ears.

"Come on, boss, we've had this conversation before," Sato said.

"Indeed, which is why I see no reason to have it again," was Chiron's curt response.

"Except that all those predications I made last time are coming true," Sato countered, clearly unwilling to take the hint. "NERV has been covering up the killings as best we can, but the people in the group we're targeting know each other. Many of 'em are still friends, even if they're not coworkers anymore. They _**know**_ that people they used to work with are disappearing. A couple have already picked up stakes and moved."

"Are you coming to a point any time soon?" Chiron asked impatiently.

"Boss…you're **losing** it," Sato said, his voice conveying so much genuine concern that Chiron found he actually couldn't get mad at the blunt statement. "Regardless of how urgent finding that armor might be, you need to rest. Clear your head. Let someone else lead the charge, at least for a while."

Chiron was surprised to find that he was actually tempted to take his subordinate's suggestions. The Chief of Section Two wasn't oblivious to the fact that he was less than stable at the moment. The outcome of his last attempt at interrogating someone—blacking out and then waking up next to a dead man, covered in the guy's blood—had made that undeniably clear.

However, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Commander Ikari had been dropping hints that he would be terminated if he didn't find that armor soon.

He was in a race against time, and he didn't know how many seconds were left on the clock.

_Which means I have to make damn sure I use every single one I have left,_ he thought.

"I have to see this through to the end," Chiron said, as much as himself to Sato. "For better or worse, I need to finish this."

"That's not a good idea," Sato said, frowning.

"What are you going to do about it?" Chiron asked, very deliberately looking into Sato's eyes and holding his gaze.

Chiron knew only too well just how tenuous his position was. If Sato went to the Commander and told him that the Chief of Section Two was becoming mentally unstable, then Ikari would probably terminate Chiron early.

That would, Chiron reluctantly admitted to himself, probably be the best course of action to take for sake of the mission, and maybe even for NERV as a whole. But Sato was a loyal agent, and Chiron was willing to bet that he couldn't throw his boss under the bus like that.

It was a bet he won. Sato looked away, breaking their little staring contest.

"Be careful, boss," he said, then turned and left without another word.

Chiron was actually touched by his underling's concern for him, but he still chuckled at that final warning. Selecting a new name from what remained of his list of targets, he reached into his desk and took out his pistol. With a practiced motion, he flicked off the safety.

"Careful went out the window a _long_ time ago," he said to the empty room.

He almost made it to the door before the Angel alarms started to blare.

* * *

Encased in the armor of Steel, Mana was not feeling as confident as she had before previous battles. In fact, she really wasn't feeling confident at all.

_Damn Angel couldn't have taken longer to get here, could it?_ She thought, casting a dark look up at the black and white striped sphere that hovered above the city, looking deceptively serene.

Her view of said Angel wasn't perfect, though, mostly because static occasionally crackled across her HUD.

_Movement feels stiff, too,_ she noted, slowly balling her right hand into a fist and then relaxing it. _Well, here's hoping that the nut jobs aren't ready for me._

"So where are you guys?" she asked aloud, searching the city streets as best she could for any sign of movement.

Not that she actually saw anyone; finding a band of crazy cultists in the city was like searching for a needle in a haystack, even when Tokyo-3 had been abandoned by everyone else. She had tried using her helmet's thermal vision, but it was all for naught; Tokyo-3's massive defense grid threw off too much heat for that to work.

In all likelihood, she wouldn't catch so much as a whiff of the Light of the Divine until it was time for them to make their move, but she kept searching anyway. It was something to do.

_And __**anything's**__ better than just waiting and worrying,_ Mana thought, this being a lesson she had long ago learned from experience.

This calm before the storm didn't last long, however, as the Evangelions were deployed mere minutes after Steel managed to get into the air. The sound of the lifts rushing up the rails was thunderous in the otherwise nearly silent city, and the thud that came when each one arrived on the surface seemed to echo for miles.

"Show time_,_" Mana whispered as she quickly took stock of each Evangelion's position.

A moment later, she took off toward Unit One, while being careful to keep low and hopefully beneath NERV's radar. Mana had told herself that her decision to ensure that Shinji's power cable was secure first was _purely_ logical; he had the most kills, so the cult would probably target Unit One first. If she didn't find them there, she would move to Asuka's power cable, since Asuka had the most advanced EVA and was the most heavily trained pilot. She would check Rei's last.

_Yeah, purely logical that you'd make sure Shinji and your friend are safe first,_ she thought with a sigh.

Trying to put her thoughts away, Steel flew toward the place where Unit One had emerged. The purple behemoth had already walked off, each step devouring the meters. If Shinji or NERV had noticed her, there was no sign of it.

_Here's hoping they aren't just waiting until after they've killed the Angel to attack me,_ she mused as she drew near to the place where Unit One's power cord began.

She almost missed them; in her haste, Mana nearly didn't get close enough to see her targets. Indeed, she would have overlooked them entirely if they weren't wearing shorter, more utilitarian versions of their customary sparkling white robes.

They were carrying a large device with them, about the size of a car engine. Since Mana's mother had once designed weapons for a living, the girl in the metal suit was easily able to identify it as a bomb. Doubtlessly, that was what they intended to use to destroy the power cable.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you people about camouflage?" Steel asked, as she came down for a landing a good distance away from the cultists.

"Hello, Steel," the apparent leader of the cultists replied, as if he'd been expecting her to drop in.

Mana felt beads of sweat pop out on her brow; that was most definitely _not_ the kind of response she'd been hoping to get from them.

Something along the lines of outright panic would've been far preferable.

"So," Mana said, removing her hammer from the magnetic plate on the back of the armor and brandishing it around, "are you going to surrender quietly, or is this going to get messy?"

She was dismayed but not surprised when none of the cultists appeared moved by her threat. The leader actually smiled.

"We're not afraid of you, Steel," he said. "In fact, I'm actually glad you showed up, because this time, we've got the tar."

"Tar?" Mana forced a chuckle. "Did you bring feathers, too?"

The leader of the half dozen cultists just turned to his men and smiled. "Show him, gentlemen," he said.

Each of the cultists reached into a pocket and withdrew a small glass vial containing a liquid that was as black as, well, tar. They quickly removed the stoppers from the vials, and before Mana could even think to react, they each downed the contents in one gulp. Just the thought of drinking the dark liquid almost made the girl in the metal suit gag.

Moments passed in expectant silence. Inside her armored shell, Mana's whole body was tense as she prepared for anything. Yet nothing happened, and eventually she relaxed.

"So, is this tar stuff supposed to help with your digestion?" she asked eventually. "Or…?"  
She trailed off as the strange substance finally began to take effect on the cultists. Their flesh seemed to burble and contort beneath their skin, a sight which made Mana's stomach lurch. Then, their bodies started to expand rapidly, their suddenly amorphous flesh forming layer after layer of muscle. Within seconds, their clothing was stretched to the breaking point.

_Oh my god,_ Mana thought, paralyzed as she watched the men transform before her very eyes.

Their faces, she noticed, were changing, too. Their jaws were becoming more square, their foreheads larger, their brows wider. It gave them a Neanderthal appearance to go with their new hulking frames.

The sound of ripping fabric filled the air as the cultists' expanding bodies burst out of their robes. The men all released guttural growls and groans of relief as the restrictive garments fell away. A stunned Mana stared at them with a mixture of horror and fascination as their transformations started to come to an end

_Thank god their pants stayed on,_ she suddenly thought, and a crazed laugh tried to burst out of her. She clamped down hard on it.

Each man was much taller than he'd been mere moments ago; where there hadn't been one who reached six feet before, many of them now looked like they might be over seven. They were all covered by an impossibly huge amount of muscle that resembled nothing so much as coiled steel. However, their bodies weren't symmetrical at all—one man's right side was far more massive than his left, and another man's left forearm appeared completely unaffected by the tar. They had all developed some quirk like this, and it gave them an extremely grotesque appearance.

"Men," the leader of the transformed cultists said, "kill him."

_Well, crap,_ Mana thought, as the half dozen bizarre muscle men stampeded toward her.

"Raaugh!" one of the men roared like an animal, putting on just enough speed to get a step ahead of his comrades.

Mana reflexively swung her great hammer at him, catching him right in the chest and sending him falling to the ground. The hammerhead landed with a meaty thwack, and for a moment, the girl in the metal suit was utterly horrified with herself, certain that she'd killed the man.

Then her mind caught up to her emotions, and she realized that she'd done no such thing; there had been no sound of bones snapping, and the man started to get back up almost immediately. Hard though the blow from her hammer had been, the transformed man's bulk had apparently absorbed enough of the force from the impact to prevent him from sustaining serious injury.

Mana felt relief, then a rush of panic as she realized just how _tough_ that meant her enemies were.

_**Definitely**__ can't hold anything back here,_ she decided.

She swung her hammer again, hitting a shoulder the size of a bowling ball. This time she _did_ feel bones breaking, and the unlucky cultist whom the shoulder belonged to let out a bestial roar of pain and outrage.

Mana barely noticed the sound. She was already firing a bolt of metal from the rivet canon mounted on her armor's forearm. The small steel spike pierced the thick thigh of another cultist, causing him to release an ear-splittingly loud scream.

And then they were on her, tackling the armor-clad girl like they were an American football team. Mana tried her best to keep her feet, but she had well over a thousand pounds' worth of angry behemoths crashing into her. She went down, the concrete beneath her cracking as she landed at the bottom of the world's most ferocious dog pile.

_No!_ She thought.

She could tell that the cultists were hammering the armor that protected her wherever they could with powerful fists and strong kicks. She could hear it as they knocked dents into her already abused armor.

Mana knew she had only a few moments before they opened her armor up like a tin can and discovered that inside Steel lurked a teenage girl. With a grunt of effort, she desperately tried to get up, to move aside the mass of tar-infused giants.

The hydraulics in her metal suit that allowed her to move out squealed in protest, but she was able to rise up slightly. She put an inch between herself and the ground, then two, the hydraulics in her armor groaning in protest the whole time.

Then there was a muffled bang, and something in her suit—Mana wasn't quite sure what—failed. She collapsed right back to the ground.

_Damn it!_ She thought, feeling so desperate and frustrated that she was practically on the verge of tears.

Her right arm was unencumbered, and she swung it about wildly, landing any blows against the cultists that she could. However, it was obvious that her efforts weren't doing any more than annoying her enemies. If she wanted to survive, she had to think of something.

_Come on, Kirishima, you're supposed to be a freaking prodigy! You can come up with a way out of this mess!_ She urged herself, frantically looking around as she tried to find something, _anything_, that could help her.

Her gaze fell upon the bomb that the cultists had brought with them. They had abandoned the thing, and it was still a good distance away from Unit One's all-important power cable. Apparently they'd decided that defeating Steel was more important than what they'd come to do in the first place.

Though neither she nor her mother was a demolitions expert, Mana had picked up a few things about explosives in the times that the two of them had bounced from one military base to another for Hazumi's job. She could tell just by looking at the thing that it wasn't professionally done. One of the cultists had probably whipped it up with parts from a hardware store and instructions downloaded off the internet.

_It's_ _probably as volatile as all hell, and I'm probably stupid as a rock for trying this,_ she decided as she took aim at it, then fired off her rivet cannon again.

Her shot was dead on, and her estimation of the bomb proved to be entirely correct. It bloomed into a huge orange fireball, and the shockwave from the blast washed over Steel and her enemies, knocking the cultists off the girl in the metal suit. For a moment, everyone just lay on the ground; the cultists were dazed and confused, while Steel was just dazed.

_Oh, now I know what it feels like to be…something that endures a lot of explosions,_ Mana groaned as she struggled to her feet, a task that was harder than it normally would have been, because the hydraulics in the armor's left arm were what had failed.

"Crap," she whispered as she looked down at herself, discovering that the armor was far more badly damaged than ever. It was marked with dents all over, and wiring was even exposed in a few places, sparking sporadically.

The pumped-up cultists were getting back to their feet now, and all of them still looked ready to rumble. Loathe though she was to flee from them, Mana decided that now that she had destroyed their bomb, retreat was probably the wisest course of action.

She depressed the buttons inside her boots with her toes, and to her relief her jets came to life and started to lift her off the ground.

"So long, guys! See you next time you try something stupid like this!" Steel pledged.

Unfortunately, her enemies weren't ready to give up quite so easily.

One of the cultists bent his knees, the impossible muscles in his tree trunk legs bulging, storing power like a coiled spring. Then, with an angry, wordless cry, he leaped into the air, almost appearing to take flight as he careened toward Steel. Despite herself, Mana let out a small cry, and she was only _just_ able to get out of his flight path. The tar freak landed hard on the ground, the concrete cracking from the force of the impact.

But his fellows had already gotten the idea. Moving with impressive speed and agility for their size, the cultists jumped into the air. Mana pushed her jets to maximum thrusts, rapidly gaining altitude until she was too high for them to reach in a single bound.

Unfortunately, that didn't stop them for a moment. The muscle bound cultists hopped like rabbits up nearby structures, moving and gaining altitude even more quickly than she could. In seconds, they would be more than high enough to leap at her again.

_I'm going to need a miracle to get out of this alive,_ she thought grimly.

* * *

"Asuka, Ayanami, are you in position?" Shinji whispered.

He wasn't entirely sure _why_ he was whispering. Sure, he was trying to sneak up on the Twelfth Angel, but any one of his Evangelion's footfalls made more noise than his voice ever could, regardless of how lightly he attempted to tread. Still, the moment was so tense that speaking at his normal volume would have felt wrong.

"Not yet," Rei answered him.

"Baka, you know EVA can't move that fast!" Asuka snapped.

The redhead was clearly irritable, which was no surprise to Shinji. He didn't think she'd been expecting him to pick up the gauntlet she'd thrown down, when she'd said _he_ should take point for this mission.

Some part of Shinji realized it might have been a bad idea to accept the challenge, but just _once_ he really wanted to shut up the loud Second Child. And in any case, there was no turning back now.

So now here he was, hiding Unit One behind a skyscraper as the spherical Angel floated by serenely. His hand, he realized, was twitching in that nervous tic of his.

_This is even worse than the actual combat,_ he thought, unable to stand waiting for his fellow pilots to get into position. He could feel his anxiety and stress building up, like carbonation beneath a cork.

It didn't take much to make that pressure burst forth from its containment. Shinji glanced over his shoulder and saw the Angel, seeming almost to loom over him, and that was enough.

Pausing for only a moment to justify what he was doing by telling himself that _he'd_ been the one who'd destroyed most of the previous Angels, Shinji commanded Unit One to break from cover. The purple behemoth raised the Evangelion scale pistol it held in its armored hands and fired off several shots at the huge, slow moving Angel.

And that was when everything started to go wrong.

* * *

"God damn it!" Mana hissed as continued her attempt to escape the supped up cultists.

One of them came soaring toward her, and she fired a solid punch at the man. Though her armor's left arm was non-functional, there was still enough strength in her right to totally kill his momentum and send him falling back toward the ground. But he'd get up again, Mana knew. He'd get up and be after her once more in mere moments.

"Wish I still had my hammer," she grumbled to herself.

Unfortunately, she had lost her grip on the great steel mallet when the pumped up cultists had tackled her _en masse_, and she hadn't had time to retrieve it after detonating their bomb.

_Okay so, no hammer, the armor's more busted up than ever, I'm being chased by six guys who have taken some kind of super steroids, and I have no exit strategy,_ she thought. _Yup, just another day in the life of "the other Girl of Steel."_

She knew the only way she could get out of the cultists' reach was to fly high above even the tallest building in Tokyo-3. However, she was very reluctant to do that; she wasn't very confident in the armor's ability to climb that high into the sky and be able to stay there at the moment.

Mana also knew that once she was above the city, NERV could turn the fortress city's weapons on her without risk to Tokyo-3. They just might do it, too—it was no secret that the upper echelons of the organization had no love for the city's superwomen. While she had yet to see any evidence that they also held animosity for Steel – who was not at _all_ powerful compared to the likes of Wonder Girl or the original Girl of Steel – she wasn't at all eager to paint a bull's eye on her back and prance around in front of their big guns.

"…looks like I don't have much of a choice," Mana noted as she just managed to dodge another cultist as he sailed through the air.

A grimace forming on her face, she prepared to increase her jets to maximum thrust.

And that was when it happened.

The ground below her suddenly changed from ordinary asphalt and sidewalks to an inky blackness that was as profoundly dark as midnight with no moon. It was like the city had been instantaneously flooded with oil, except not even oil had ever been so black.

Mana was so perplexed by what she was seeing that she momentarily forgot all about escaping. _Is my HUD going out?_ She wondered

But no, what she was seeing really was happening, and it wasn't merely a shift in color. Street lights and telephone poles started leaning to one side as the once sturdy foundation they rested upon became as solid as quicksand.

And they weren't the only things. Three of the cultists immediately lost their footing and began to fall as the buildings upon which they stood shifted unexpectedly beneath them. Mana could only watch with wide eyes as the trio of men plunged downward, arms and legs flailing wildly. They sank into the blackness almost immediately when they hit the ground.

Part of Mana's mind couldn't seem to wrap itself around what she'd just seen. A moment ago, there had been three men. Now they were gone without a trace. Swallowed by the dark maw. _Eaten_ by the Angel.

_Holy…_

In the midst of all this, she didn't realize just how long she'd been simply hovering and observing the scene unfolding before her. The remaining cultists, however, did.

One of them vaulted at her, and now that she was a stationary target, he managed to make contact with her, crashing into her armored form and wrapping his beefy arms around her in a death grip. Mana let out a cry as the addition of so much weight, unevenly distributed, caused her flight pattern to go out of control.

"You _idiot!_" Mana screamed at top of her lungs as she and the cultist went into a series of stomach turning loop-de-loops, her jets leaving twin smoke trails that almost looked like a drunk man's attempts at writing in cursive. "You'll kill us both!"

"Good!" the cultist snarled back. "My life is small price to pay to destroy an enemy of the Light!"

_Why do I ALWAYS forget that I'm fighting fanatics?_ Mana wondered, even as she did her best not to throw up inside her helmet.

"Get off!" she yelled.

"Never!" the cultist roared.

Mana swallowed, gripped by a terrible sense of indecision. Though she had vowed to destroy the cult, she had also pledged (if only to herself) that she wouldn't kill anyone while doing it. She could probably dislodge the man currently clutching to her, but she would almost certainly be sending him to his doom.

The girl in the metal suit was frozen, and, as so often happens in life when one refuses to make a choice, the decision was soon made for her. A particularly hard blow from the tar infused cultist landed on just the wrong place on her already abused armor, and the Exosuit's already shaky hard drive abruptly crashed. Mana's HUD immediately went dark, and she could feel the jets in her metal boots cut off.

_Oh, __**shit,**_ Mana thought in that one, horrible moment before gravity reclaimed its hold on her, and she hung suspended in midair.

Then she started falling, taking the cultist who'd finally caused the Exosuit to short out to fall with her. That snapped her out of her horrified shock.

"Reboot!" she commanded, making sure to speak loudly and clearly.

Nothing happened. Her HUD remained dark and blank, and the sickening sensation of falling continued. She couldn't see a thing besides the dark interior of her armor's helmet, but she knew she only had seconds to go before she hit the ground and was swallowed into that pitch dark abyss.

In fact, for all she knew, she already _had_ fallen into it.

"Reboot!" she yelled again. "_Reboot, god damn you!_"

There was a beep from the computer systems inside the armor, and green text began to scroll across her HUD. However, the image of the outside world didn't return, and her jets remained quiet.

In the grip of some of the most intense fear she'd ever experienced, and completely unable to observe her surroundings, Mana lost all track of time. She had no idea whether seconds or minutes passed, whether she still had a chance to escape or was already as good as doomed.

All she knew was that she was sweating bullets, her heart was threatening to beat its way out of her chest, and her damn suit's systems couldn't restart fast enough.

_Come on, come on…!_

Finally, the suit systems came back online, and the light from her HUD coming back to life caused Mana to squint.

Even though her view was dominated by the blackness of the Angel, which was frighteningly close, and only approaching at very high speeds. She had a second at most to avert her certain doom.

Releasing a yelp, Mana immediately depressed the buttons to activate her jets as hard as she could. Unfortunately, going straight to full throttle probably wasn't the best course of action.

She cried out she soared upwards in an erratic, zigzagging path, only _barely_ able to avoid crashing into the city's badly tilting buildings as she went. The force of acceleration was pressing down on her, and she couldn't consistently keep track of which way was up, let alone where all the obstacles were.

And in the midst of all this chaos, the damn cultist started hitting her again.

_Okay, enough's enough!_ Mana thought, growling deep in her throat. _I'm getting rid of you no matter what it takes!_

With a loud cry, she reached back and punched the cultist as hard as could in the head. It wasn't the most elegant of maneuvers, but it was the best she could do with the hydraulics in the Exosuit's left arm currently shot to hell.

And it was effective. The man released his hold on her, more from surprise than pain, and he went plummeting downwards, cursing and yelling at her the whole way.

Yet he did not get swallowed up by the Angel; Mana had done her best to make sure she was above a building when she knocked him off, and to her surprise, her efforts were successful. She breathed a sigh of relief as she watched him land on the relatively solid ground of one of Tokyo-3's tilting skyscrapers.

_He might deserve it, but I still don't want to kill the moron,_ she thought, watching him scramble to gain his footing and quickly succeed.

What happened next, she later concluded, really shouldn't have surprised her, but it did anyway. The cultist immediately rewarded the way she'd spared his life by leaping at her once more, clearly intent on resuming his attack.

Only this time, she didn't even have to bother dodging, because her enemy never even got close to the amount of altitude he needed to get to her. Instead, all he managed to do was leap across what had once been the street and perch atop another badly leaning building.

Mana frowned in confusion for a moment before she saw it, then her eyes widened.

_He's shrinking,_ she thought. _That tar stuff must be starting to wear off!_

She wasn't the only who had realized this fact; the cultist was frantically trying to get to the highest point of his current perch as his artificially bloated musculature rapidly melted away, obviously hoping to get in one final attack before his enhanced strength disappeared entirely.

He jumped…and Mana could tell immediately that he wasn't going to make it. The trajectory of his leap was all wrong, and it would take him nowhere but the Angel's maw. It was no great surprise, considering he was almost normal size again.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she said, with a long suffering sigh.

Mana dove, pushing her battered power armor as hard as she dared, and then a little harder still. Still, she was able to grab hold of the cultist's arm well before he hit the darkness below.

This time she was unsurprised by his total lack of gratitude.

"Don't think saving me changes anything!" he raged, even as he tried to lash out at her. With his superhuman strength gone, his struggles were ineffective. "My life is insignificant, and you are still an enemy of God."

Behind her helmet, Mana rolled her eyes. "Why, you're very welcome, you-"

Before she could go any further, one of the nearby buildings finally succumbed to the total lack of any supportive foundation and began to completely topple over. It was an awesome sight, watching a building that could easily hold hundreds of people go crashing down, its structure crumbling as it went.

However, Mana barely noticed the spectacle. She was more focused on what its fall allowed her to see.

Unit One was nearby. It was nearby, it was already chest deep in the blackness, and it was sinking quickly. The sight chilled Mana's heart.

"Shinji," she whispered, too softly for anyone but her to hear.

There was nothing she could do. Even if her armor was functioning at full capacity, she never would have been able to rescue the Third Child. There was no chance in hell that she could stop or even slow down the Evangelion's descent into the darkness. She _could_ tear off part of the armor and get Shinji out…if she had about three hours to work.

As it was, all she could do was watch until Unit One disappeared, the tip of its horn finally vanishing into the blackness.

_No,_ she thought.

"Yes!" the cultist cheered. "Yes! At last, the enemy—"

Mana didn't let him get any further. She pulled him up until he was staring right into the cold, metal faceplate of her armor and snarled, "I swear on my mother's life, if you say _one more word_, I will drop your ass into the abyss _**right now!**_"

The man instantly fell silent. He might have been willing to die if that was the price for destroying Steel, but even he wasn't zealous enough to throw his life away simply so he could play cheerleader to the Angel.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, Mana searched the area for the remaining two cultists, but they were nowhere to be seen. Either they'd retreated to safety or fallen into the Angel, and she was honestly having trouble caring either way.

_There's nothing else I can do here,_ she thought sadly, looking at the place where Unit One had vanished. _I guess all that's left is for me to ditch this idiot and go home…and pray._

* * *

Despite knowing that there was nothing she could do to help her friend, the first thing Mana did after she got home and shed her badly damaged armor was to rush upstairs and look out her window. However, she couldn't see the Angel from there.

_I can't do anything but drive myself nuts by watching the thing, _she thought. _I should just go back downstairs and get cracking on the armor. Who knows __**how**__ much work it'll take it just make it serviceable again?_

Not forcing herself to watch how the Angel battle unfolded was an eminently logical course of action, since she could not change its outcome. Spending time working on the armor, preparing for the next battle with the Light of the Divine? That was something she _could_ affect.

Yet, logic or no, Mana soon found herself climbing out of one of her windows and onto the roof of her home. From there, she had a very good view of the Angel, which was floating in the distance. It appeared to be motionless to Mana's eye.

She carefully sat on the roof, taking a moment to adjust her skirt as she settled down. And there she waited.

And waited.

And _waited_.

_Oh god, is anything ever going to happen?_ Mana wondered, stretching her stiff limbs after hours had passed. It was nearly twilight, and the Angel had not budged an inch since it had consumed Unit One.

"How long can this go on?" she wondered aloud.

Of course, she had no idea how long the Angel could keep doing nothing. For all Mana knew, it could continue to hold its position and cast its ravenous shadow over Tokyo-3 for all of eternity.

What she was quite certain of was that if Unit One didn't escape from the abyss soon, then it would make little difference if it ever did. Mana didn't know how long an EVA could keep its life support systems online when everything else had been deactivated—the five minutes of full operation time on internal power was well known to NERV's rivals, but that detail was not—yet she knew Shinji couldn't possibly have much time left.

"What the heck is wrong with NERV?" she asked no one in particular. "Why aren't they—?"

She stopped speaking abruptly the moment that the rumbling started. The ground started to tremble, which in turn caused Mana's house to shake beneath her. It was slight but still readily noticeable.

Of course, mild tremors were a common occurrence in Japan. Yet somehow, Mana just knew that this was no ordinary earthquake.

A quick glance back at the Angel only confirmed what she already knew in her gut. The once zebra-striped sphere had turned completely black, and it was starting to briefly bulge out in a few places, almost as if…

An enormous hand suddenly burst from the body of the Angel, accompanied by a powerful spray of crimson blood. It took Mana a moment to realize that it was Unit One's hand; her first thought had been that the Angel was birthing some horror even worse than itself.

The shaking of the earth intensified, and for a moment, Mana feared that her house might collapse while she sat atop it.

However, the thunderous roar which split the air instantly caused her to forget about such petty fears. As she watched with wide eyes, Evangelion Unit One _exploded_ forth from the Angel, sending blood gushing everywhere. The normally violet and green war machine had been painted a red-brown color by the Angel's copious life fluids. It crashed to the ground, the impact sending one final tremor through the ground, then threw back its head and roared one more time.

"Holy mother of god," Mana breathed.

Shinji, some part of her mind realized distantly, was saved. This was an immense relief to her, and her hope for seeing him escape the Angel was the whole reason she had sat on her roof and watched the thing for so damn long.

Yet even her joy at her friend's salvation was eclipsed by the shock and horror she was feeling at that moment.

Before, she hadn't believed there was anything _that_ special about Evangelion. Yes, the AT field was a formidable defensive measure, but she'd felt certain that science would crack the secret of how it worked sooner or later. And even if it didn't, Mana firmly believed that there was no such thing as an impenetrable defense. Under an assault from enough firepower, even an AT field would fall.

She had also believed that, if Hokkaido Heavy Industries had placed her mother in charge of the Jet Alone project, rather than the idiot who actually had overseen it, then the robot would have been a weapon that could rival if not exceed the Evangelions.

Now? She knew better. The Evangelions weren't mere weapons. They were forces of nature. A hurricane in a bottle. Lightning in a can.

And NERV was able to control them. Barely.

And they were an order of magnitude more deadly than any other weapon in existence.

"Holy mother of god," Mana breathed again, unable to find any other words.

The auburn-haired girl had been around the defense business all her life, and in that time, she had learned certain fundamental truths. One of those truths was that the major players on the world stage would simply not tolerate anyone having a gun which was _that_ much bigger than any of theirs. Everyone would play nice so long as the Angels kept coming, but once that threat had passed…if NERV didn't immediately dismantle the Evangelions and put the genie back in the bottle…and maybe even if they did…

_The United States, China, Russia, maybe the European Union…they'll __**all**__ start building their own Evangelions to counter Japan's,_ Mana thought, feeling dizzy at the proposition. _**Especially**__ if NERV figures out how to fix the problem of EVA's short internal battery life._

It would be the kind of arms race not seen since the United States and the Soviet Union had both stockpiled atomic bombs _en masse_ during the Cold War, and it had the potential to be even more deadly.

"My god," she whispered. "What the hell did NERV _make?_"

* * *

The next day, Shinji Ikari found himself sitting in class, silently deciding that NERV was absolutely merciless. After his Evangelion had _somehow_ gone berserk and freed itself from the Angel—Shinji was still trying to decide how much of what he'd seen that day was just the product of his terrified, increasingly oxygen-deprived brain—he had been granted the rest of the day off.

That morning, however, there had been no question that he was going to school so far as NERV was concerned. So now the Third Child found himself sitting in class, struggling not to fall asleep.

_Would anyone even notice if I did catch a few winks?_ Shinji wondered as he felt his eyelids start to droop.

He'd never really noticed just how hypnotic the droning of their teacher was before that day…

His head slumped forward, but he jerked awake just before he could really start to drowse.

Shinji wasn't afraid of getting caught sleeping in class, but he was afraid of _sleeping_. Just the thought of last night made him shiver.

The sound of the bell saved the Third Child from any urges he might've had to think about the experience further; for a moment, he just blinked stupidly as his fellow students got up to leave. He hadn't thought it was anywhere near time for dismissal yet.

_I must be even more messed up today than I realized,_ he mused glumly.

"Not planning on staying here all day, I hope," a familiar voice jolted him from his thoughts.

"Oh, hello, Mana," Shinji said, looking up. "I was just, um, thinking."

"I see," she said. "Well, uh, you're looking well."

A small, rueful grin appeared on the Third Child's face at his friend's obvious lack of sincerity. He looked like death warmed over that day, and he knew it.

"Thank you," he said, getting up from his desk and grabbing his bag, "you are, too."

It was an offhanded comment, though one he probably wouldn't have made on a day when all the neurons in his brain were firing like they were supposed to. Even so, he barely gave the words a thought after they'd left his mouth.

Until, that is, he thought he saw Mana blush prettily. Shinji blinked, surprised that such a mild compliment from him could evict that response from her.

_I __**must**__ just be fooling myself_. _A cute girl like her would never have those kinds of feelings for someone like me,_ he decided almost immediately and wasn't surprised to discover he could no longer spot any trace of pink in her cheeks. He had probably imagined it to begin with.

"Thanks," Mana said. "Walk me home?"

"Sure," Shinji said, even though he didn't want to.

All he wanted to do was go back to Misato's apartment, lay on his bed, and try to find some rest. He fervently hoped that his SDAT, which he hadn't had with him last night in the NERV medical ward, would allow him to sleep in peace. Alas, he didn't know how to refuse without being impolite, so he resigned himself to the task.

"Thank you," Mana said.

The trek to the auburn-haired girl's house was a mostly silent one. Mana tried a few times to make small talk, but Shinji was feeling so weary that he was only willing to make the most minimal replies he could get away with. Eventually she stopped trying to make conversation and didn't speak again until they were on her front porch.

"Thanks for walking me home, Shinji," she said. "Hey, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered automatically.

"You look like you haven't slept in about week," Mana commented. "No offense."

For a moment, Shinji almost wanted to laugh. _I thought that I was looking well,_ he thought, and nearly said.

"None taken," was his actual reply. "I guess I am a little tired."

"Come inside," Mana said. "I'll make you some tea. It'll perk you right up."

Again, Shinji would've rather just gone home, but he didn't see any way to decline the offer without offending her. Deciding that a few more minutes couldn't hurt, he gave his ascent and followed her into the house.

The moment he crossed the threshold, the Third Child did a double take at what he found inside. Bits and pieces of machines without number were scattered all over the interior of the once tidy home, along with a multitude of tools.

"Excuse the mess," Mana said absently. "Just…clear off a place on the couch and have a seat. I'll be back in a minute with that tea."

Shinji's neat freak attitudes very nearly overrode his usual aversion to being judgmental; he squelched the critical remark _just_ before it could leave his mouth, suddenly remembering that building things was how Mana dealt with "stuff."

_She must still be in a lot of pain over what happened to her mother,_ he thought sympathetically as he followed her advice and cleared a place for himself to sit on the couch.

Mana returned a few minutes later with two steaming cups and offered one to Shinji. He accepted it and took a careful sip of the green tea. It was a good, strong brew, and the warmth was welcome.

Even so, he nearly spilled the contents of the cup all over himself when Mana cleared off a space for herself (carelessly sweeping several mechanical doohickeys to the floor with one swipe of her arm), and then sat down next to him. Close enough that her side was pressed against his.

_She's very warm,_ he couldn't help but think as he struggled to get over his shock.

"Shinji," Mana said, "tell me about yesterday."

_That_ question hit him like a bucket of cold water; Shinji found he suddenly couldn't feel that warm sensation which had come from Mana's proximity anymore.

"What?" he asked.

"I…asked Asuka about the last battle today," Mana said quietly. "She told me how you were stuck inside the Angel for hours and hours. I just thought you might want to talk about it with somebody."

He forced a smile. "That's nice of you, but it really isn't necessary," he said.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "How much did you sleep last night, Shinji?" she asked.

"Not much," he confessed, realizing she'd seen right through him. "I had a lot of nightmares."

"Come on, Shinji, tell me about it," she urged. "It'll make you feel better, I promise."

"I don't want to burden you," he said, looking away. "You shouldn't have to listen to me whine."

"Shinji, right after I found out my mother was in a coma because of what her kidnappers did to her, you came over and listened to _me_ whine, even though we didn't know each other very well. I owe you," she pointed out. "And even if I didn't, I'm your friend, and I care about you. Providing a sympathetic ear sometimes is just what friends _do_."

The Third Child turned back to look at her, surprised. He wasn't sure anyone had ever stated so openly that they cared about him before.

"Talk to me, Shinji," she said gently.

He closed his eyes. "It was dark," he said at last. "God, it was so _dark…_"

His voice wavered as he finished that sentence, surprising him. Shinji hadn't thought he was on the verge of going to pieces, especially not right away.

Mana wrapped her arms around his shoulders. The gesture normally would have freaked him out, and he probably would have pulled away. However, it was so obvious that it was strictly for comfort, rather than romantic in nature, that he remained relaxed.

He could feel the warmth of her body again, and it seemed to soak into him. Shinji realized that he'd felt cold inside ever since getting out of Unit One yesterday. He hadn't realized until the awful sensation started abating.

"Go on," Mana said eventually.

"For fourteen hours, I was certain that I was going to die as soon as Unit One ran out of power…"

* * *

Two days after the latest Angel battle, Captain Iwao Chiron was feeling more desperate than ever. He had watched Steel do battle with the cultists on a screen in his office, and he'd lost track of the numbers of times he'd felt like his heart had leapt into his throat. So many times it had seemed like Steel—and his precious armor—was doomed to fall into the Angel, taking Chiron's hopes for redemption with him.

He did _not_ want to wait until another similar confrontation occurred, this time possibly destroying Steel before Chiron could get to him.

Unfortunately, all he could do to try and prevent that was more of what he'd already _been_ doing.

"Well, now, Dr. Maruyama," Chiron said to his latest victim, who was securely tied to a chair, "I've danced this dance far too many times in recent weeks, so why don't we just skip the formalities? You tell me what happened to the Exosuit—who took the prototype after Hokkaido Heavy Industries collapsed—and I go away. You don't, and I will make you suffer like you've _never_ suffered before. Which will it be?"

"Kirishima!" the terrified scientist exclaimed.

Chiron frowned. "What?" he demanded.

"Kirishima took the damn thing," Maruyama elaborated. "She tried to keep it a secret, but she liked to bring her work home so she and her daughter could do it together. They'd build weapons together the way a guy might restore an old rod with his son. She took the Exosuit, I know she did!"

Chiron hesitated. The man was probably lying in an attempt to save his own hide, but he'd seen this movie dozens of times already, and this was not how it usually went. Every other person he'd captured and interrogated had started off by saying they didn't know what had become of the overpriced suit of power armor. It was only after the Chief of Section Two started getting very "persuasive" that they began to make up lies.

"Kirishima's too short to work the Exosuit," he said.

Maruyama frowned in confusion. "No, she's not. Hazumi's not a big woman, but she's tall enough to work the suit," he said. "Besides, what has that got to do with anything?"

"Someone's been using the Exosuit," Chiron explained, for some reason feeling absolutely furious at the man for misunderstanding him, even though he hadn't been very clear. "And Hazumi Kirishima's indisposed. What I meant is that _Mana_ Kirishima is too short to use it."

"They, Kirishima and her daughter, would have modified the Exosuit so the kid could use it," Maruyama said with certainty. "You don't spend as much time and effort as it would take to get that thing fully operational without planning to take it out for a spin after you're done."

This could all still easily be a fabrication, Chiron thought, but he didn't believe it was. Maruyama looked like a man who knew he had a way out of the situation he'd found himself, not a man who'd concocted some bogus story and was silently praying his captor bought it.

_Damn, looks like Sato was right. I should've grabbed the girl at the start,_ Chiron thought absently as he took his pistol out of its holster. _Shows what my compassion for kids gets me._

"Wh-what are you doing?" Maruyama demanded. "You said that if I told you what you wanted to know, you'd go away."

"Yes, I did, and I will, too," Chiron said, attaching a silencer to the barrel of his gun. "But I didn't say I wouldn't get rid of any witnesses first."

"No, wait! You—"

The Section Two Chief's gun fired, and the scientist went silent.

Chiron noted with satisfaction that he hadn't gotten so much as a drop of blood on his dark suit. Then he checked his wristwatch, confirming that it was still the middle of the day; the kid would in school for hours yet.

He took out his cell phone as he made his way out of the unlucky scientist's house. Someone picked up after the first ring.

"NERV Section Two."

"This is Chiron," he said. "Get a team together and meet me at the Kirishima residence. _Don't_ go in until I get there. Anyone who barges inside will answer directly to _me_, understand?"

"Yes, boss."

Emerging from the house, Chiron quickly got into his black sedan and started the motor. His ticket to getting his job security back was waiting for him, and practically on a silver platter.

"Today," he proclaimed to himself, "is going to be a very good day."

* * *

Sitting in class and enduring another long-winded lecture about how the pre-Impact world had been superior to the post-Impact world, Mana tried to stifle a yawn. She proved unsuccessful.

_This has got to be the worst part of normal life,_ she decided, allowing her eyes to wander away from the wizened old teacher.

Shinji, she noticed, was looking much more well-rested than he had the previous day. The dark circles around his eyes were no longer present, and he didn't have that drawn, haggard appearance anymore.

_I guess he managed to get some real sleep last night,_ she thought.

Mana hoped she could take at least some of the credit for that, after comforting Shinji the previous day. He'd been so good to her in the days immediately after her mother's kidnapping that she'd been more than happy at having a chance to repay him. He spent over two hours at her place, telling her about the nightmarish experience he'd endured.

Mana shivered slightly at the thought of it. What Shinji had suffered through had sounded far too much like being buried alive for comfort, and the vivid, bizarre hallucinations he'd told her he'd had toward the end of the ordeal couldn't have made things better.

_He's such a sweet guy. He really shouldn't have to go through so much,_ she thought. _I should invite him over to my place for dinner again sometime, when I can find a spare moment._

Her lips were just starting to curl into a smile at the idea when a flashing message appeared on her laptop's screen. Mana's blood went cold at the sight of it, and all thoughts of Shinji Ikari were immediately banished from her mind.

Shortly after her mother had been kidnapped, Mana had installed a security system of her own design into the house. Since she didn't trust the Tokyo-3 police force at all, she hadn't programmed it to alert them, however. Instead, it contacted her.

And now it was telling her that someone was breaking into her house, where she had stored the armor.

Taking a quick look around to confirm that no one in class was paying much attention to her, Mana began to type commands into her laptop with suddenly shaking hands. A moment later, a video feed from hidden cameras she'd installed inside her home appeared on her screen.

And Mana almost did a double take at who she saw invading her home.

_What the hell?_ She thought, gaping at the image of the black suited men, instead of the white robed cultists she had expected. _Those guys don't look like they're in the Light of the Divine! They look like…like…_

They looked like the NERV bodyguards who always seemed to hover around the EVA pilots.

_No,_ she thought, _no way. It's impossible!_

Yet possible or not, it was happening before her eyes. There was no audio feed, but she could see the apparent leader of the group, a big man with a craggy face that looked like it had been carved out of solid stone, gesturing as he spoke to the others. A moment later, they split up, each of them heading toward a different part of her house.

It didn't take long before they were all heading toward her basement, however, presumably brought there by a shout from the man who'd gone to search the place.

_The armor's down there,_ Mana thought, feeling like she was about to throw up.

She was just about to raise her hand and ask if she could go to the nurse when the bell rang, signaling the end of the period. Since PE was next, all the students began to get up from their desks, getting ready to head to their lockers.

"Saved by the bell," Mana muttered to herself, "sort of."

She got up and rushed out of the classroom ahead of anyone else, then quickly left the school entirely. No one noticed her leave in the rush of students all heading to one place or another.

Or at least, so she thought.

* * *

"Finally," Chiron said as he stared at the empty Exosuit, "I finally found the damn thing."

The other Section Two agents traded glances; they knew their boss had been a little cracked lately, but he'd just been staring at that thing for about two straight minutes now. However, none of them really had the nerve to speak up and end the chief's moment.

So instead, it was the ringing of the phone that did it. Chiron jumped as it sounded through the basement.

"Don't pick it up, you idiot," he hissed as Sato went over to the extension in the basement.

"Caller ID says it's the kid's cell phone," Sato said.

"Shit. She wouldn't call her own house unless she knew we were here," Chiron scowled, rushing over and stabbing the button for the speaker phone. "Hello?"

"Hello," a voice that undoubtedly belonged to a teenage girl replied. "Who are you and what the hell are you doing in my house?"

"Who I am is none of your concern," Chiron replied gruffly. "As for what I'm doing, let's just say it's nothing you can stop."

"Oh, _I_ wouldn't say that," Mana replied, and Chiron stiffened, fervently hoping she was bluffing. When he didn't say anything, she continued. "Listen to me, jerk. I'm going to hang up this phone. After I've done that, I'm going to wait one minute. Then I'm going to call the Exosuit and set off the armor's self-destruct mechanism. The N2 power cell inside it will go critical and create an explosion big enough to destroy the whole house. So I suggest you get out of there in under sixty seconds."

"What?" Chiron barked, but the girl just terminated the call at her end.

Dial tone filled the basement. It had never sounded so ominous to the Section Two agents before.

"We need to get the hell out of here," Sato proclaimed. "Now."

"No!" Chiron snarled.

"Boss—"

"I've seen some of the schematics for earlier versions of this thing," Chiron said. "I know where the N2 power cell is. I can defuse it."

"In under sixty seconds?" Sato asked, incredulous that his boss would even think of attempting it.

"I have to try," Chiron said.

"This is suicide," Sato proclaimed. "I can't stop you, but I'm taking the men and leaving."

"Fine," Chiron spat. "It's a one man job, anyway."

The other agents were more than happy to make their escape along with Sato. Chiron barely paid them any head as he grabbed a screwdriver from a nearby workbench and went to work.

"Like 2008 all over again…" he grumbled to himself.

* * *

_…58…59…60_, Mana thought as she finished counting off the seconds.

Her finger hovered over her cell phone, but for a moment, she couldn't immediately make herself do it. She couldn't just key in the code that would destroy her home.

Her home. It had held such potential when she and her mother had first come to Tokyo-3; it had represented the promise of a normal life. That promise had quickly been reduced to rubble, but Mana had still held out hope that it might happen someday. That her mother would wake up, that she'd win her crusade against the Light, and that she could go back to being a (mostly) normal teenage girl.

Now she was destroying it, the last piece of all the hopes and dreams she'd come to the city with.

But she had no other choice if she wanted to keep the Exosuit out of the hands of the men who'd broken into her home.

"Damn it," she breathed as she started pushing buttons.

* * *

"Come on, come on…" Chiron hissed through gritted teeth, only too aware of how little time he had left.

All he had to do was remove one more panel, and he'd be able to get at the N2 power cell and disconnect it from the rest of the suit. However, he knew that he might set it off himself if he rushed this part of the operation, so he forced himself to move slowly. It wasn't easy.

_Sixty seconds __**must**__ have passed by now,_ he thought. _Was the little bitch bluffing, or does it take a long time to key in the self-destruct code?_

He couldn't really think of any reason the younger Kirishima would have told them she could blow the armor if she really couldn't. All that would accomplish would be to get them out of the house for a while; it would eventually become apparent the place wasn't about to explode, and they'd move in again.

He supposed that a panicked fourteen-year-old girl might make such a move without thinking it through, but he wasn't ready to relax and take his time yet.

He inserted the tip of his screwdriver into the seam between two small metal plates and carefully applied pressure, prying the two apart. He held his breath as one piece popped out of place, knowing that if something was going to go catastrophically wrong, it would do so now.

But there was no explosion, nor any ominous beeping which might be the precursor to one. Chiron breathed a sigh of relief.

Then he saw what he'd revealed and his face paled. There was no N2 power cell in the compartment he'd just exposed, just some wiring and circuitry.

_They must have changed the location of the thing from where it was in those old designs!_ He thought.

That tore it. If the girl had been bluffing, he could come back and claim the Exosuit later. If she'd been telling the truth, then there was no way he had time to find the power cell's real location.

"Gotta get the hell out of here!" he said, sprinting toward the stairs.

In seconds, he was out of the basement and back on the ground floor of the small home. He didn't stop for a moment, heading toward the front door at top speed.

He almost made it, too.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sato and the other Section Two agents were standing outside, waiting to see what would happen next. They had all withdrawn a good distance from the house, going so far as to retreat to the other side of the street. Sato had deemed this more than far enough to be safe.

He reconsidered that judgment call when a tremendous yellow and orange fireball burst into life, accompanied by a thunderous boom. In less than a second, the little house just simply stopped existing, consumed by the explosion. Pieces of burning debris were sprayed in all directions, and even the agents had to dodge a few.

"Holy shit," Sato breathed, awed by the terrific and terrible display.

He had expected that something seriously bad would happen to his boss, thanks to the way the man had become completely obsessed with discovering who Steel was and getting the armor. However, he had never for a moment thought that something like _this_ would happen.

And the worst part? Sato just _knew_ somehow that Chiron was still alive in there, because the Chief of Section Two was just _that_ much of a stubborn son a bitch.

He wouldn't die so easily, especially not when he now had to avenge himself.

He withdrew his cell phone from his pocket and called headquarters. "This is Sato," he said. "We need a bus here, now. Captain Chiron is down. And send out teams to grab the Kirishima girl. Either she's in the school, or she's just left. Do _not_ kill her; capturing her alive is our last hope of getting the Exosuit's technology."

* * *

Sprinting down the street as fast as she could, Mana calmly reviewed what she had done so far that day.

_Blown up my own house? Check,_ she thought. _Stopped some bad guys who __**aren't**__ the Light of the Divine from stealing my armor? Check. Figured out what to do next?_

A black van suddenly pulled up nearby, brakes screeching as it came to an abrupt halt. Horns blared as several nearby drivers had to come to their own sudden stops as a result, but if anyone in the van felt the least bit guilty about what they'd done, they showed no sign of it.

A large door on the side of the vehicle swung open, and a good half a dozen men in black suits emerged.

_Not check!_ Mana thought, as she turned and ran.

"Stop!" one of the men ordered. "You are under arrest! Stop now, or we'll shoot!"

_That_ only caused Mana to go faster, even though she was starting to tire. The auburn-haired girl was in good shape, but she was no marathon runner. Already, her feet were beginning to hurt and her lungs were starting to burn. She couldn't keep this up forever.

Yet even worse than her quickly increasing fatigue was her total lack of a plan. She was playing this all by ear, and she couldn't think of any endgame to this situation that didn't involve her being either captured or shot.

_Not like I'm going to give myself up, though,_ she thought.

Mana risked a glance over her shoulder and winced at what she saw; the men in black were rapidly gaining on her. She darted into an alleyway, finding that, while it wasn't a dead end, a chain link fence in the middle of it prevented her from just dashing through.

Undeterred, Mana ran right up to the fence and nimbly climbed up and over the thing, silently wishing that she was wearing pants instead of a dress as she did so. That had bought her a few seconds; it would take her pursuers a little while to get past the obstacle, and she intended to use that time to try and lose them.

Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as Mana planned. The moment she emerged from the alleyway, she found herself confronted by three more men in black suits who were blocking her path. She came to a sudden halt, then turned back to look at the way she'd come.

However, the first group of men were just getting over the fence. In seconds, they had cleared it and were rushing forward. Mana was surrounded.

_Oh no,_ she thought, looking around futilely for some avenue of escape. _No, not like this._

"Mana Kirishima, you are under arrest," one of the men said.

"What for?" she demanded at once.

"That's not important," the man said, thus abandoning any illusion of being a legitimate officer of the law. "Now come with us!" he ordered.

He grabbed her forearm, and his grip was more than tight enough to hurt. Despite herself, tears of pain appeared at the corners of her eyes.

"No! Let go of me!" Mana yelled.

She struggled fiercely to free herself, but without the armor, she was only as strong as the average teenage girl. The man in the black suit easily overpowered her and began to drag her toward a waiting van.

Mana thought that she was done for; she had been captured, and she would probably have to endure what her mother had been put through. Though she continued to struggle with all her might, she silently admitted that there was nothing she could do to save herself.

She had lost, and her enemies had won.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Dun dun dun! Apologies for where I've left our heroine, but this was just too good a place to stop to pass up.

So, wild chapter, huh? I've actually been planning this plot development since pretty much the beginning. On an unrelated note, I realize the tar might have seemed to have come from nowhere. The stuff is from the Steel comic book; the first story arc concerned a war between two street gangs. One had toastmasters, while the other had tar. There was never much explanation for where tar came from there, but I have my own explanation for the SOE2-verse. We'll touch on that next chapter.

And that's about all I have to say here. So, as always, thanks to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta readers as well.

Now for some fun.

* * *

Omakes

Not Just a Superstition

"I'll see you around, Shinji."

"See you," Shinji replied.

He headed back toward the sidewalk, and Mana slipped into her home, heaving a sigh the moment she closed the door. She hated the way that being Steel tended to interfere with her life as a (mostly) normal teenage girl. From being unable to spend time with her friends, to constantly worrying about her enemies, the whole 'double life' thing just…_sucked_.

_I wonder if the real Girl of Steel has these problems,_ she thought as she dropped her schoolbag on the kitchen table.

* * *

_Meanwhile, on the other side of Tokyo-3…_

Given the…more unique denizens that had recently been making their presence known in the fortress city, trying to conduct an armed robbery in Tokyo-3 was not the best of ideas.

However, the average criminal was not the smartest of people, so there were still plenty of criminals in the so-called city of tomorrow. Case in point, the two men who had donned black ski masks and then tried to rob a jewelry store.

The heist had actually been going pretty well until Power Girl had shown up.

"Keep shooting at her!" one of the robbers shouted.

"Why?" his accomplice asked, even as he squeezed the trigger on his pistol. "The bullets just bounce off her! They're not doing anything! Look! She's _smirking_ at us!"

Indeed, the Girl of Steel was just standing there, completely impervious to the withering hail of gunfire, and looking amused that the two men were even trying it. Yet the two men felt compelled to least _try_ and beat her, and they kept up until both their guns were clicking empty.

"Okay," Power Girl said, "now that you two morons are out of ammo, I'm going—AH-CHOO!"

The superwoman's little speech was abruptly interrupted by a sudden sneeze. Which wouldn't have been a big deal, except that it came from a pair of superhuman lungs. The two would-be robbers were knocked off their feet by a blast of air that rivaled a tornado in raw strength, and both crashed into a nearby display case, smashing the glass. The two eventually crumpled into an unmoving heap on the floor.

_What the heck?_ Power Girl thought, resisting the urge to wipe at her nose with the corner of her cape. _Is somebody talking about me? Because I don't think I can even __**get**__ sick!_

Then she noticed that the unfortunate bystanders who had been shopping in the store when the robbers had first barged in were all staring at her.

"I meant to do that!" she snapped.

* * *

I'm a PC…And I'm Falling to My Doom

"Reboot!" she commanded, making sure to speak loudly and clearly.

Nothing happened. Her HUD remained dark and blank, and the sickening sensation of falling continued. She couldn't see a thing besides the dark interior of her armor's helmet, but she knew she only had seconds to go before she hit the ground and was swallowed into that pitch dark abyss.

In fact, for all she knew, she already _had_ fallen into it.

"Reboot!" she yelled again. "_Reboot, god damn you!_"

There was a beep from the computer systems inside the armor, and green text began to scroll across her HUD. However, the image of the outside world didn't return, and her jets remained quiet.

Then the green text, which had been scrolling by too quickly for her to read, suddenly came to a stop.

"This program has performed an illegal operation and must be shut down?" Mana read the message with disbelief. "Damn it! I told Mom we shouldn't have used Microsoft in this thing!"

She tried to reboot her suit's systems again, but this time she got a fate even worse than that message.

She got the blue screen of death.

"Curse you, Windows!" Mana screamed as she went plunging into the abyss. "_Cuuuurrrrsssseee yoooooooou!"_

* * *

Cheap Knockoffs

"So, is this tar stuff supposed to help with your digestion?" she asked eventually. "Or…?"  
She trailed off as the strange substance finally began to take effect on the cultists. Their flesh seemed to burble and contort beneath their skin, a sight which made Mana's stomach lurch. Then, their bodies started to expand rapidly, their suddenly amorphous flesh forming layer after layer of muscle. Within seconds, their clothing was stretched to the breaking point.

_Oh my god,_ Mana thought, paralyzed as she watched the men transform before her very eyes.

The sound of ripping fabric filled the air as the cultists' expanding bodies burst out of their robes. The men all released guttural growls and groans of relief as the restrictive garments fell away. A stunned Mana stared at them with a mixture of horror and fascination as their transformations started to come to an end

_Thank god their pants stayed on,_ she suddenly thought, and a crazed laugh tried to burst out of her. She clamped down hard on it.

"Men," the leader of the transformed cultists said, "kill him."

_Well, crap,_ Mana thought, as the half dozen bizarre muscle men stampeded toward her.

Only to have their charge rudely halted when a huge green woman seemed to fall from the sky, landing on the ground between them and Steel with enough force to shatter the pavement beneath her.

The cultists stopped short at this unexpected development. The newcomer was at least as tall as any of them, and was likewise covered with rippling, steel hard muscle. Unlike them, her body was symmetrical, preventing her from having the grotesque appearance they did.

And despite her exaggerated musculature, she was _definitely_ a woman.

Yet that didn't make the utterly savage expression on her face any less frightening.

"She-Hulk smash puny knockoffs," she growled.

The leader of the group of cultists got over his surprise first, and he snorted at the threat. "You look pretty strong, Greenie, but so do we," he said. "And there's six of us, but only one of you. Not good odds."

"Smash," was all She-Hulk said by way of reply, clearly not one for debate.

"Yeah," the cultist said, "smash."

With that, he threw a punch at the She-Hulk's heavily muscled abdominals, putting all his tar-infused strength behind the blow.

Only to let out a cry of pain and pull his hand back, finding that he'd split open nearly every knuckle on it. The green woman, however, hadn't so much as flinched.

"She-Hulk's turn," she said in a low, dangerous voice.

"Uh-oh…" the cultist said, just before her fist crashed into him.

The tar-infused man was sent flying at high speeds through the air. He eventually crashed through a building, creating a series of cultist-shaped holes in the walls as he went.

"Run!" one of the remaining cultists shouted.

They turned to retreat, but before they could get anywhere, the She-Hulk clapped her hands together, creating a shockwave that knocked them off their feet. Before they could get up, she charged forward and started going to town on them.

"Ow. That is _not_ supposed to bend that way."

Mana turned to see that that the author had materialized from seemingly nowhere. This time, Mike was munching on peanuts as he watched the carnage.

"You know," Mana said, "if you keep writing omakes where the She-Hulk just randomly shows up, people are going to get sick of it."

"Now, Mana, you know that's a terrible, terrible lie," Mike said mildly. "Peanut?"

"No, thanks."

"Besides," the writer said. "This one isn't really random. The tar freaks are total Hulk rip-offs. Misato can't be expected to take that sitting down!"

"I guess," Mana said with a shrug, turning her attention back to the battle.

It wasn't a long fight. Within minutes, the cultists were all bruised, bloodied, and unconscious.

And the moment her foes were defeated, the primitive, bestial rage the green giantess's face. She directed a pleasant smile at nothing in particular, as though looking into a camera Mana couldn't see.

"Remember, kids, it's the She-Hulk," she said cheerfully, then flexed her arms, causing her biceps to swell into unreal mountains of muscle. "Accept no substitutes."

Mana threw a sideways glance at the author. "Hey…didn't you use basically this exact same idea for an omake in _Shinji the Mighty_?"

"You can't prove that," the author replied.

"Uh, yeah, I can. It's not like it's hard to check, and—"

"Look, do you _want_ me to tell She-Hulk over there that you're an Angel?"

"Totally original!" Mana squeaked. "This omake is _totally_ original!"

"Damn straight," the writer said. "Now are you sure you don't want any peanuts?"


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Six:** Reconstruction

"Let go of me!" Mana screamed as loudly as she could. "I haven't done anything wrong! Let go of me!"

Her protests fell on deaf ears, however. Not that she really expected the black suit brigade to care how loudly she shrieked at them, but she still held out a faint hope that her cries would draw the attention of the police.

Of course, if her suspicions were correct, and these men worked for NERV, then she wasn't sure how much good getting the city's regular law enforcement officials involved would do.

"_Let go!_" She yelled again, with as much volume as she could.

"Shut up!" the man holding her hissed. "And quit squirming!"

"No!" Mana snapped, instead redoubling her efforts to escape from his grip.

Unfortunately, all her struggles proved utterly ineffectual, seeing as how she was a regular fourteen-year-old girl trying to fight against a large and powerfully built man. It was with only minor difficulty that he dragged her over to a waiting van. One of his associates quickly moved to open the vehicle's back doors.

There were no torture devices inside the van. In fact, it was completely empty. However, the sight of it still caused Mana's stomach to lurch. She'd have _officially_ lost if they managed to get her in there.

Also, she didn't even want to think about where the unmarked van would take her, or what she'd have endure once she got there. She was very sure it wouldn't be pleasant, to say the least.

"No! I don't want to go in there!" Mana yelled uselessly, her panic and terror reaching a crescendo.

The man holding her snarled, "I told you to…!"

He trailed off as a shadow fell over both him and the auburn-haired girl. It was almost as though a cloud had moved in front of the sun, except the effect was localized to only the two of them.

Mana looked up to see a dark shape swooping down at them like some kind of enormous bird. However, she only got a second to study it, because within a moment, it was upon them.

Then a pair of booted feet slammed into the man holding Mana, sending him crashing into the ground. His grip on the auburn-haired girl loosen considerably as he was hit, and Mana finally managed to wrench free from his grasp, stumbling forward a few steps.

_What in the world?_ She thought, even as the dark shape landed lightly on the ground, and she saw that it was another girl.

Another girl who was clad in black from head to toe.

"It's her!" one of men exclaimed. "Get her!"

The next thing Mana knew, absolute chaos had erupted all around her. The men were all converging on the girl in black, but she was like a wraith, moving with almost otherworldly speed and grace. She slipped between her attackers, dealing out punches and kicks that knocked the men flat, but they seemed unable to so much as touch her in return.

Then Mana saw one of the men reach into his coat and withdraw a pistol. Using firearms in such close quarters combat was insanity, but that didn't mean he couldn't get lucky anyway. She tried to shout a warning to the girl in black, but all that came out of her mouth was a wordless cry.

Still, it was apparently enough. The black clad girl grabbed hold of another man and shoved him so that he was between her and the gunman just before bullets flew. Three shots hit the dark lady's unfortunate victim in the torso, and Mana gasped in horror.

Then the girl in black released her human shield, and the man staggered forward a few steps. Mana saw no blood, and realized to her relief that he was wearing a Kevlar vest beneath his shirt and jacket.

Unfortunately, there was no way that the gunman's pistol held only three shots, which meant that he had more ammunition left. However, the girl in black knocked the weapon from his hand with one swift kick. A taser then appeared in her hand, appearing there as if by magic, and a moment later, the man with the gun was collapsing to the ground.

The rest of the battle was a blur of punches and kicks to Mana; she couldn't have followed all the action if her life depended on it, but once it was concluded, the outcome couldn't have been simpler.

The girl in black was still standing, while all the men were on the ground.

The dark lady turned to Mana, finally allowing the auburn-haired girl to see the yellow emblem on her chest. It confirmed what Mana already knew.

"Batgirl," she whispered, too quietly for anyone but herself to hear.

"Are you all right?" the caped crusader asked. Her voice was a low growl that seemed to come from someplace deep in her throat.

"Y-Yes," Mana stammered, suddenly feeling rooted to the spot by the force of Batgirl's glare.

"Good," Batgirl said. "Come with me."

"What?" Mana asked.

"Come with me," Batgirl repeated, "unless you've got another way of escaping from Section Two."

Mana just blinked stupidly at the dark lady, having absolutely no clue what to do, or even what to think for that matter. Batgirl wasn't like Supergirl or Wonder Girl. There were stories about the girl in black, _bad_ stories. Most of the people who believed she existed thought she was insane.

On the other, she _had_ just saved Mana's life.

"Freeze! Hands up, or I'll shoot!" a loud voice came from nearby, before the auburn-haired girl could even really begin to consider her decision.

Mana turned to see that even _more_ men in black suits approaching. The apparent leader of this new squad had his pistol drawn and was pointing it right at her and Batgirl.

The dark lady didn't justify his demand with a response. At least, not a _verbal_ response. With seemingly impossible speed, she threw…some black thing that Mana didn't quite see at him. A fraction of a second later, the man let out a cry as the projectile hit his hand and knocked the gun out of his grip.

The other black suits immediately moved to draw their weapons, but again, Batgirl proved far too quick for them. Reaching in one of the many pouches at her belt, she hurled a number of small metal spheres at the group of men. These immediately began to spray a greenish gray gas in all directions, and the squad of men were almost instantly caught in a cloud of the stuff. Mana could hear them coughing loudly.

"No more time for debate," Batgirl proclaimed.

The dark lady wrapped one arm around Mana's waist in a tight grip, prompting a small yelp of surprise from the other girl. Then Batgirl used her free hand to take hold of a grappling gun at her belt. Taking only a brief moment to aim, she fired, and the hook sailed upwards, soon landing on the roof of a nearby building.

All this happened in significantly less than fifteen seconds, so Mana didn't really have time to brace herself for what came next, which was being pulled upwards through the air at a very high speed.

"Ahh!" she exclaimed.

Batgirl didn't bother to respond, and a second later the two had landed on the roof of the building. At this point, Mana would have considered them safe enough to take a half-minute breather, if only for the sake of getting her bearings.

The dark lady obviously felt differently, however. She immediately scooped Mana into her arms, bridal style, and took off running. In only a second, she had reached the edge of the roof, but that didn't stop her; Batgirl simply leaped to the roof of the building next to it.

Mana's stomach lurched at this maneuver. Absurdly, part of her mind mused that, had her rescuer been a guy, this whole experience might've actually been romantic. She almost laughed at the notion.

Then Batgirl performed another rooftop jump, and any levity Mana might've been feeling quickly dissolved.

The caped crusader continued to leap from building to building for what felt like kilometers to Mana, but in reality was probably about half a block. Finally, she ceased her series of jumps, instead heading for a nearby fire escape. Without slowing her pace, Batgirl shifted all of Mana's weight to one arm, using her free hand to grab onto the railing as she ran down the metal steps at perilously high speeds.

_Wow, she's strong,_ Mana thought. Amazingly, the caped crusader, the subject of a thousand and one wild urban legends, was about the same size as the auburn-haired girl, and Mana was quite certain _she_ couldn't carry her own body weight with one arm.

Batgirl reached the last landing on the fire escape and, apparently feeling the need to gain every second she could, bypassed the final set of stairs, simply leaping over the safety railing to the alleyway below. Mana tensed to her rescuer's grip, but this time she did not release a cry of fear and surprise.

Mostly because the maneuver took her so completely by surprise that by the time she'd consciously registered what was happening, Batgirl's boots had already hit the pavement.

"Come on," the dark lady ordered her gruffly as she put Mana down on her feet.

A sleek black motorcycle was waiting in the alley for them, and Batgirl immediately got on, starting up the engine. It was almost ninja quiet, Mana observed, and despite herself, she found her mind trying to figure out how the sound of the engine could be muffled so well without seriously compromising power.

Then she snapped back to reality and climbed onto the motorcycle behind Batgirl, wrapping her arms around the black-clad girl's waist in a death grip. The dark lady didn't seem to mind; wordlessly, she twisted the accelerator and they were soon zooming through the streets of Tokyo-3.

For a few minutes, things were actually relatively calm. Sure, they were attracting a lot of glances from the people in the cars they were passing, but at least no one was threatening to shoot them anymore.

"Where are we going?" she shouted over the wind.

"Somewhere safe," Batgirl replied, sounding mildly annoyed that Mana wanted to engage her in conversation while she was driving. "Right after we deal with them, of course."

Mana frowned. "Deal with…?"

Then she turned her head, and her eyes widened at what she saw. About half a dozen matching dark vehicles were weaving crazily through traffic to get at the black motorcycle. Even in the few seconds that she was watching, one of them struck another car with enough force to send its hapless victim swerving into a street lamp.

A man in the passenger seat of one of the pursuit vehicles (_another_ guy in a black suit, Mana noted) leaned out the window and held a bullhorn to his mouth. "This is the police!" he shouted. "Pull over and surrender now, or we will have to resort to deadly force!"

_Right, because real cops travel around in unmarked black sedans with no sirens,_ Mana thought sarcastically.

Batgirl, meanwhile, reacted to the threat by pressing a button on her bike's handlebars. Immediately, a compartment in the rear of the motorcycle opened up, spilling out several objects that looked like they'd been made by twisting together two large nails.

_Caltrops,_ the ever weapons savvy Mana thought as she watched them bouncing onto the street.

The results of this maneuver were predictable, but no less spectacular for it. The black sedans, which had by now bullied their way to the front of traffic, were too close to stop before they could hit the things, if their drivers even noticed them. The caltrops instantly punctured the cars' tires, and the half dozen sedans all spun out of control. The sound of metal crumpling and glass shattering filled the air as they all collided with one another in a multi-car pileup that was certain to block the street for hours.

_Whoa,_ Mana thought. _Guess we lost those guys._

"Now what?" she asked Batgirl.

"Now you just keep holding on," the cape crusader replied.

_Right, in other words, shut up. Got it,_ Mana thought, rolling her eyes.

They continued to speed through traffic for a few seconds, with Batgirl never saying so much as a word, let alone revealing their destination to her passenger. This time, though, Mana refused to let herself relax, keeping her eyes peeled for yet more members of the black suit brigade.

Then the powerful bike reached a railroad intersection, and to Mana's surprise, Batgirl turned, so that they were now following the track.

"What are you doing?" the auburn-haired girl squawked.

There was no sign that a train was anywhere near their vicinity at the moment, but Mana still really didn't want to risk getting hit by a speeding locomotive.

"Relax," was all Batgirl said in reply.

"Relax," Mana echoed. "Yeah, right."

The dark lady ignored the comment, if she even heard it over the rush of the wind, and only twisted the accelerator further, getting more speed from the bike. Soon, they plunged into a tunnel which led underground, something that did _not_ help the already overwhelmed girl's nerves.

Then, while they were still below ground, the track split. Batgirl chose the right fork, and Mana noticed that the tracks were set to send any trains down the left route. She allowed her to calm down just a little bit, knowing that at least they wouldn't be hit by a train on their current course.

Mana then looked at what was ahead of them and felt her stomach plunge into her shoes. Their path ended in a cinderblock wall.

"It's a dead end!" she shrieked. "Stop! You'll kill us!"

Batgirl didn't so much as ease up on the accelerator. Panicked, Mana tried to reach around the dark lady to get at the bike's controls, but the caped crusader was able to stop her with little effort. It didn't help that Mana didn't know much about motorcycles and wasn't entirely sure where the brakes even _were_ on one.

Just as it seemed that they were completely doomed, the wall—a barrier of cinderblocks that looked to be cemented into place—started rising up, revealing more tunnel beyond it. The black motorcycle simply sped through the newly created path, and the camouflaged door slid shut after they had passed.

"Oh God…" Mana groaned, slumping in her seat and practically leaning against Batgirl's back.

With the terror—and the adrenaline rush—suddenly over, her bones seemed to change into a substance that was about as strong as jelly. She was totally drained and felt like crying. It took a great deal of willpower for her to resist the impulse.

_Batgirl,_ she thought, feeling a hysterical laugh trying to escape her. _It had to be __**Batgirl.**_

What she would've have given to have received aid from the original Girl of Steel instead. Having Wonder Girl swoop in would have also been vastly superior. But no, instead the potentially (i.e. probably) insane one had shown up and was now spiriting her off to goodness knew where.

Mana almost thought it would've been wiser for her to have taken her chances with the black suits.

Almost.

"Are you all right?" Batgirl asked, and she sounded significantly more human now that they were safe in her underground hidey hole.

"No," Mana answered miserably. "The bad guys who came after me aren't the ones I was expecting, and I have no idea what to do now. Also, I just blew up my home."

"Don't worry. We'll…figure something out," Batgirl replied. She sounded awkward delivering words of comfort, as though she didn't do it often.

Mana didn't bother to reply.

The tunnel they were traveling down soon began to grow more narrow, until it was barely wide enough for the motorcycle they were riding, forcing Batgirl to slow to a crawl. It also soon ceased to look like a train tunnel, taking on the appearance of a mine shaft instead.

The minutes dragged on, and the adrenaline rush that Mana had been on began to ebb. Just as she was starting to nod off, they reached the end of the hidden tunnel, emerging in an enormous cave. It wasn't _just_ a cave, though. Several floodlights had been installed in the ceiling, though even these were insufficient to really chase the darkness out of the huge chamber. Lots of very expensive looking equipment was everywhere, all of it neatly organized, and another motorcycle, identical to the one Batgirl and Mana rode upon, sat in a corner.

"Whoa," Mana breathed, as her eyes fell upon a particularly large and boxy piece of hardware. "Is that…is that an ORACLE supercomputer?"

"Yes," Batgirl replied simply.

The dark lady said it as if it was no big deal, but Mana knew better. After the vaunted MAGI units, the ORACLE supercomputers were the most powerful on Earth. Only a handful existed in the whole world, and each one cost well upwards of ten million US dollars.

"You…you sent that email to me, didn't you? The one that warned me about how the Light of the Divine was going to attack the Evangelions?" Mana asked. "No wonder I was never able to track it back to you."

"That's right," Batgirl replied, parking the bike right next to her spare one and getting off. "I wanted to see how you'd do against them."

"Wh-what? You mean that whole thing was just some giant test?" Mana exclaimed indignantly.

"Relax. I was there the whole time. I would have stepped in if you'd ever been in any real danger," Batgirl replied easily.

Mana did a double take, some choice highlights from her most recent battle with the Light of the Divine coming back to her. Chief among them was being dog piled by the tar-infused cultists and nearly plunging to her doom when her armor's hard drive had crashed. If those incidents didn't count as "real danger" to Batgirl, Mana didn't know what would!

If she noticed that she'd left the other girl thunderstruck, the dark lady didn't show it. She casually headed toward a large workbench, her black cape swaying gently as she moved.

"Why were you testing me to begin with? Why would you care how good I am at stopping the Light of the Divine?" Mana demanded.

"I have something a…vested interest in you," Batgirl answered calmly. "Didn't you wonder why I came to rescue you?"

"Uh, yeah. The thought had crossed my mind," Mana lied as she finally got off the motorcycle and stumbled after her rescuer.

She had _not_ been wondering why Batgirl had saved her, mostly because she'd been too terrified and panicked to think that clearly. However, after having been carried around like baby in Batgirl's arms, Mana wasn't keen on showing any more weakness to the caped crusader.

Reaching her workbench, Batgirl removed her yellow utility belt from around her waist and began to restock it, replacing the items she had used against the men in black.

"It's quite simple, really," she said. "I want to employ you."

"Employ me?" Mana repeated stupidly, suddenly having a crazy mental picture of herself working a nine-to-five desk job down in this large cave.

"Yes," Batgirl replied. "The terms I'm offering are straightforward. You get free room and board here, as well as resources to build yourself a new Exosuit, which you'll be allowed to keep once our arrangement's done. In return, you'll go out in your Steel persona and continue your efforts to destroy the Light of the Divine. You'll also use your technical skills to upgrade my equipment."

Mana was silent for a full fifteen seconds after that, barely knowing what to say first in response to this bizarre proposal.

"Wait a minute," she finally spoke. "Am I a prisoner here?"

"Of course not," Batgirl replied dismissively, the accusation not even getting her to look up from her work. "If you turn down my offer, then you're free to go."

Mana's shoulders slumped as those words sank in. Obviously, leaving Batgirl's protection was simply not an option for her. The dark lady didn't need to keep Mana prisoner; circumstances did it for her.

"However," Batgirl continued, "once you accept my resources, then I'll expect you to stick around until our partnership is done."

"And when will that be?" Mana demanded, scowling. "A month? A year? The rest of my life?"

"Not that long," Batgirl reassured her. Apparently finished with her work, she finally took her attention off her belt and turned her gaze back toward Mana. "There are…things that I want to know about NERV. Suspicions I want to confirm or deny. If I do confirm them, I intend to make an…appropriate response. I expect to do this before the conclusion of the war, which should be over less than a year from now."

"Okay," Mana said, though Batgirl's failure to name an exact period of time still made her leery. "But why do you even care about the Light of the Divine? And why should _I_ care anymore, for that matter? It looks like they weren't even the ones who attacked my mother…" the auburn-haired girl's eyes widened. "My mother! Now that I escaped, those guys will probably go after her!"

"Calm down," Batgirl ordered her, and with such a tone of command that Mana immediately shut up. "I've been watching you for some time, and I knew that your identity's exposure was a possibility, so I took precautions. Your mother is currently being transferred to a private hospital under a new name. I assure you, she's quite safe."

Mana felt a sudden rush of gratitude, which she immediately squelched. Batgirl had known what she was doing for some time, and had probably known that all Mana's aggressions were directed at the wrong group, yet she'd never come forward to tell her.

Not only that, but the dark lady's actions regarding her mother could easily have unfortunate implications. Her eyes narrowed. "And does she stay safe even if I say no to you?" she asked.

"Completely," Batgirl replied. "That one's on me."

"Oh," the auburn-haired girl said, surprised and a little ashamed of herself. "Well, thank you."

"You're welcome," Batgirl replied. "Now, what was the question you were going to ask?"

"Um, why do you care about the Light of the Divine again?" Mana asked.

"I swore a long time ago to make the world a safer place," Batgirl replied, with great determination in her voice. "That cult has some murderous ambitions. Unfortunately, I'm spread thin as it is, which is where you come in. The Light fears Steel even more than they fear me."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense," Mana said. "But I'm still not sure about this…"

Not that she had any real choice in the matter; Batgirl had her over a barrel and _had_ to know it. Really, Mana just wanted to make her reluctance known.

Which was why she was so surprised when the caped crusader decided to sweeten the deal. "All right," Batgirl said, "if you agree to work for me, then I will provide you unlimited resources for rebuilding the Exosuit."

Mana's eyes widened. "Unlimited resources?" she repeated, barely daring to believe it.

She knew all too well how those words were like the Holy Grail to a scientist or an engineer working on a project. Just hearing them made Mana's head swim with the possibilities for Steel mark II, and her hands itched to get building. She felt like an artist who was suddenly being offered paints in every shade and color imaginable…after having been forced to work with an eight count box of crayons her whole life.

"And," Batgirl added, "I will do everything in my power to assist your friend Colonel Sakai."

"The colonel!" Mana gasped.

She'd forgotten all about him in the insanity of the day, but he was going to be in some serious trouble once her disappearance and the destruction of her home came to light. He was her legal guardian at the moment, after all.

"Yes," Batgirl agreed. "He's probably going to be discharged from the military. I'm afraid I can't do much about that, but I can help keep him out of jail, as well as make his transition to civilian life significantly smoother."

Now Mana knew she _had_ to agree to help Batgirl; if there was anything she could do to help the colonel, then she had no choice but to do it. She had convinced him to stick his neck out for her, even though she'd known from square one how catastrophically wrong her crusade against the Light of the Divine might go.

"All right, I'll work for you," she said. "But you have to understand, rebuilding the Exosuit won't be as easy as you seem to think. I'll have to start completely from scratch. It could take months, and that's if I remember all the important details correctly."

"You won't have to rebuild it from scratch," Batgirl said, heading over to a computer terminal with a monitor that Mana estimated was only slightly smaller than the average movie screen.

Before the auburn-haired girl could ask what the dark lady meant by that, Batgirl had started typing at her terminal. A moment later, a very familiar set of schematics appeared on the screen. Mana's eyes widened.

"These are the last set of schematics developed by Hokkaido Heavy Industries," she said, by now wondering if there was anything Batgirl couldn't do or get.

_It's a wonder she even needs my help at all,_ she thought.

Batgirl nodded. "They should make building a new Exosuit for yourself easier," she said. "So, do we have a deal?" the caped crusader held her hand out for a shake.

Mana hesitated for a moment, then reached her hand forward. It wasn't like she had another option, and even though Batgirl had to realize that, her terms had been very generous.

"Deal," she said, and the shook on it. Batgirl's grip was like a vice, but Mana forced herself not to wince.

Once that was done, the dark lady reached up and pulled her cowl off her head. Mana, who thought that nothing else could surprise her after the day she'd gone through, did a double take as the other girl shook her head, her raven-colored hair whipping about.

_No,_ she thought. _No way. I can't be. There's just no way…_

Then the dark-haired girl picked up a pair of spectacles with round frames that were sitting on the table by her keyboard. When she put them on, it dispelled any doubt in Mana's mind.

"Mayumi Yamagishi," she whispered, stunned.

"That's me," Mayumi replied, with just a trace of a smug smirk on her face.

A person could have knocked Mana down with a feather at that moment. She just couldn't believe what her eyes were telling her. Mayumi Yamagishi, the meekest, quietest girl she'd ever met…the girl who was so unobtrusive that Mana didn't even take note of her presence most of time…

_Mayumi Yamagishi_ was **Batgirl**.

More of the pieces began to fall into place in Mana's head. "You're a member of _that_ Yamagishi family, aren't you?" she asked. "The one that owns Yamagishi Enterprises?"

Mayumi nodded her head slightly. "The last surviving member, in fact."

Mana looked around the cave for a couple of seconds. Mayumi being the heir to the Yamagishi fortune certainly explained how she was able to afford everything, and Yamagishi Enterprises had recently bought what was left of Hokkaido Heavy Industries, which was how she had the Exosuit schematics.

She turned back to the other girl abruptly, her eyes narrowing as she examined the black garment Mayumi was wearing. Mana reached out and grabbed some of the material, feeling it between her fingers. Mayumi just arched an eyebrow at her.

The auburn-haired girl's gaze snapped up to meet Mayumi's eyes. "This is the prototype infiltration suit," she said. It had been her armor's more advanced (and much more expensive) older sibling. "I always wondered just who bought it."

"It's served me very well," Mayumi said. "It's the reason I made sure my company offered your mother a job, in fact."

"So with her in a coma, I'm the next thing, right?" Mana asked coldly. "Is that why you bothered to find out so much about me? Why you're helping me? It's not just about out-sourcing your vigilante activities, is it?"

Mayumi didn't flinch from the other girl's gaze. "No, it's not just about that," she said evenly. "I investigated you because I thought the 'man' in the big armored suit was something I should know about. As for _why_ I decided to help you, however, suffice to say that I have some sympathy for your particular situation."

The caped crusader's dark eyes were as hard as obsidian, showing no sign of pity. However, Mayumi's voice was so firm that Mana still couldn't doubt her, even though she had no clue why the Batgirl would have sympathy for her "particular situation."

Before Mana could figure out what, if anything, she should say, Batgirl silently turned on her heel and began walking toward a staircase that led upwards. Once at the top, she very quickly threw open the door there, revealing a very distinguished looking older gentleman. Said distinguished gentleman was wearing a black suit, along with a gray vest, and found himself caught red-handed in the very undistinguished act of eavesdropping. It was only too obvious that he'd been listening at the door.

If this annoyed Mayumi, she didn't show it.

"Make up one of the guest rooms, Motomu," she told him. "Kirishima here is going to be staying with us for a while."

"Of course, Mayumi-san," he agreed at once, no more flustered at being caught spying than she'd been upon catching him at it.

The raven-haired girl then breezed past the man, leaving Mana and Motomu alone.

"Well," he said, turning to the auburn-haired girl, "I imagine that you'll want to rest after the day you've had. Could I interest you in a cup of tea?"

* * *

Meanwhile, Captain Chiron was _not_ having a good day.

"C'mon! Move it!" a paramedic shouted as he pushed a gurney carrying the Chief of Section 2 through NERV Medical. "Clear the halls!"

A team of men had descended upon the rubble which was all that remained of the Kirishima residence, and it had still taken them nearly an hour just to locate Chiron. After that, it had taken them another twenty minutes to liberate the man from the smoldering debris.

All things considered, it was an absolute miracle that the man was even still alive. Though, given how extensively burned Chiron was, not to mention the score of other grievous injuries he'd sustained, perhaps "miracle" really wasn't the right word for it. Most people would've felt that death was better than being in _his_ condition.

Nevertheless, NERV Medical wasn't in the business of just allowing key personnel to die, let alone euthanizing people. The paramedic pushed the gurney through the halls as quickly as he dared, until he at last reached the ward's emergency room. A team of NERV Central's best medical personnel was already waiting.

"Here you go, Doc," the paramedic said, glad to hand off the patient to someone else.

He did _not_ want Chiron to die while under his care; the enmity of Section Two was the absolute last thing he needed in his life.

"Right, thank you," Doctor Arai said distractedly, already focusing his attention on Chiron.

Eiji Arai was a healer in the truest sense of the word. He was not a man who had entered the medical profession for the money or the prestige that came with it; he had become a doctor to help people, all people.

Which meant that even though he'd heard some horrific rumors about what Iwao Chiron had done while on the NERV payroll, rumors which had dramatically increased in the number during the last few months, he didn't hesitate to give saving the man his best effort.

However, it soon started to become clear that the best effort of everyone involved simply wouldn't be good enough. In addition to the massive burns and seemingly endless number of lacerations Chiron endured, the trauma and shrapnel from the explosion had also done a number of his internal organs. His spleen appeared to be on the verge of a massive hemorrhage, his liver was bleeding, and there were multiple small puncture wounds in his intestinal tract.

_And if he doesn't have a concussion, I'll eat my damn stethoscope,_ Arai thought as he continued to work.

Unfortunately, it seemed that every time they moved to fix something, they found new injuries which by themselves could be fatal. After several hours of operating on the half-roasted Chief of Section Two, Arai finally accepted the inevitable.

"We can't save him," he said resignedly.

The members of his exhausted staff, who had each drawn that conclusion some time ago, sagged with relief.

"Somebody get me some morphine," Arai said. "At least we can make sure he's not in any pain."

One of the nurse's quickly prepared a syringe for him. However, as she moved to give it to him, a hand snatched it away before Arai could even touch it. Startled, he looked up at the owner of the hand and found himself face to face with the Project-E chairperson. He'd been so focused on his work that he had no idea when she'd even entered the operating room.

"What are you doing here, Akagi?" he demanded, taking her intrusion about as well as most surgeons in his place would have. Better than some.

"I'm taking your patient," Ritsuko said, as though there was nothing at all strange about that.

"For God's sake, _why?_" Arai asked incredulously. "This man is dying. All we can do is make him comfortable until he passes."

"Maybe that's all _you_ can do," Akagi corrected him, turning her gaze to Chiron's battered form. "But where you see a dying man, I see a perfect candidate for Project-M."

* * *

The next day, there was a conspicuously empty desk in Class 1-A.

At first, Shinji didn't think too much of Mana's absence, thinking that she had simply overslept and was late getting to school. He recalled how Mana had told him that she was struggling to get her grades back up, and the Third Child assumed that she had spent one too many late nights cramming.

_She has been looking pretty tired lately,_ he thought.

At this point, the teacher walked in, and Hikari gave her fellow students the usual "stand, bow, sit!" command. The usual Second Impact lecture began, and Shinji didn't give Mana another thought for some time.

However, soon an hour had passed, then two, and the Third Child gradually found himself starting to worry. Mana being late wasn't so strange, but for her to cut school entirely was definitely odd. He knew that, in her situation, she didn't want to give anyone working at Tokyo-3 Junior High a reason to come by and ask to speak with her parents.

So when the lunch period rolled around and Mana still hadn't made an appearance, the Third Child was very concerned. Telling Toji and Kensuke that he'd join them in a minute, he headed to the picnic table outside the school building where he knew Asuka and Hikari always ate together.

"Um, hello," he greeted them awkwardly. "Sorry if I'm interrupting anything, but I was wondering if either of you knew where Mana is?"

The two girls traded a look before Asuka answered. "No, we don't know where she is."

"We were hoping that _you_ might know, in fact," Hikari confessed. "We were about to go looking for you."

"Oh," Shinji said, surprised that the pair of girls thought Mana might have confided something to him and not to either of them. "I see."

Asuka eyes narrowed slightly. "You haven't heard any of the rumors, have you?" she asked.

Shinji frowned. "What rumors?"

"Only the rumors about Mana that have been all over school since this morning, baka," Asuka snapped.

"There's a whole bunch of them flying around, and each one's more crazy than the next," Hikari elaborated. "I think the latest one says that Batgirl blew up her home and then kidnapped her."

"Oh, well, those are just rumors," Shinji said dismissively, surprised that the forever level-headed class rep would believe something like that for even a moment.

"I know," Hikari said at once, "but I've never seen the rumor mill go from zero to insane quite so fast before. It's kind of got me worried."

"Hikari and I are going over to Mana's place later, to deliver her homework," Asuka informed him. "If you want, you can come with us." She added, though her tone made it clear that she'd consider him an enormous nuisance.

For once, Shinji didn't care. "I'll come," he said immediately.

* * *

There were definitely times when Mitsuo wondered just what the hell he'd been thinking when he'd agreed to work for NERV rather than take his extensive skills in the field of cryogenics to the private sector. Usually those moments came when he received one of his pitifully small pay checks, or when he was informed that he'd have to work a double shift (for which he would be paid no overtime, of course).

Compared to the _current_ moment, though, well all those instances had been just rosy.

Mostly because at _this_ moment, he was staring at the barely alive body of Iwao Chiron. The Section Two man was floating in a tube of filled with a mixture of LCL, nutrients, antibiotics, and other drugs. The whole, unholy cocktail was being kept at just below zero degrees Celsius.

_What is wrong with me?_ He wondered as he took the gruesome sight of Chiron's injuries. _What possessed me to agree when Dr. Akagi told me there was some secret project being carried out in Terminal Dogma that she really wanted my help with?_

Of course, Mitsuo knew the answer to that question, which was that he'd been really, _really_ curious about the ultra-secure section of the base and had wanted to see it. Unfortunately, he hadn't exactly been given liberty to explore the whole place; really the only parts of it that he got to see were the ones where he conducted his unsavory business with Chiron.

_Though, if crap like __**this**__ is happening everywhere down here, then I don't __**want**__ to see the rest of this place,_ he decided.

"Admiring your handiwork?"

The voice from behind him caused Mitsuo to jump, and he whirled around to see that Dr. Akagi had entered the room.

"Not really," he confessed softly, once he'd regained his composure.

"Hmm, I suppose he's not very pretty to look at, is he?" Ritsuko said, walking up next to him. "You're certain we can't freeze him entirely?"

"Quite certain," Matsuo answered. "Mankind simply has not fully mastered the science of cryogenics yet, and human bodies can't shrug off as much abuse as Evangelion units. If he was in good health, I might attempt it, but as it is, trying to put him in completely suspended animation would almost certainly kill him."

Akagi didn't immediately reply, just gazing silently at Chiron. Matsuo had heard things about the Chief of Section Two, bad things, but no one deserved what he was going through. If Akagi hadn't been adamant that their highest priority was keeping the man alive, Matsuo would've tried to freeze him anyway, rather than just slowing down the clock with low temperatures.

"How long can he survive in this state?" the bottle blonde asked eventually.

"Impossible to say for sure, but given how slow his heart rate is, I'd say at least a month," Matsuo said.

"Good," Akagi replied. "That should be more than enough time to prepare everything."

Matsuo didn't dare ask what "everything" entailed.

"Dr. Akagi is this…is this really…can we _do_ this?" he stammered nervously. "I mean, we're keeping him this twilight state between life and death. We're making the final hours of his life last for weeks. The effect this could have on a person's mind—"

"This could cause him brain damage?" Akagi asked sharply.

"No," Mitsuo said. "No physical damage to the brain. But there _is_ some brain activity. He's in a sort of dream-like state right now, and if past experiments are any indication, that dream probably consists mostly of the moment all this happened to him."

"I understand," Akagi said. "Believe me, I don't want to leave him in this state a second longer than necessary."

They were silent for a few moments, then Matsuo spoke up again. "Dr. Akagi?"

"Yes?"

"How do you do it?" he asked.

"Do what?" she responded.

"This, and things like it," Matsuo clarified, then swallowed. "Just doing one part of this one secret project feels like it's costing me a piece of my soul. How do you do all of it? How can you?"

She looked at him, and her green eyes contained such a haunted expression they were immediately burned into Matsuo's memories forevermore.

"That's simple. I have no choice but to do it," Akagi replied.

* * *

"So, what do you think is the _real_ reason Mana didn't come to school?" Asuka asked as she, Shinji, and Hikari trekked toward the Kirishima residence that afternoon.

Neither of her two companions responded immediately, which didn't really come as much of a surprise to her, really. All three of them had grown very worried about Mana by this point, though the redhead was refusing to admit it. Really, Asuka had only ventured the remark because she felt that the walk had been far too silent and wanted to start a conversation.

Eventually, she directed a glare at Shinji, and the Third Child got the hint, offering a response. "Well, maybe she just has a cold or something and called in sick?"

Hikari shook her head. "Nobody called Mana out," she said. "The attendance sheet said she was supposed to be in today."

"Oh," was the only response Shinji could come up with, and they were in danger of lapsing back into silence again.

"Okay, clearly something happened," Asuka said, "but that doesn't mean something _bad_ happened. Maybe her mother came out of her coma. I know school would be the last thing on my mind if my mother…I mean, you know what I mean." She finished somewhat lamely.

Shinji and Hikari exchanged a look; this possibility had not occurred to either of them.

"It's certainly possible," Shinji said.

"And a lot more likely than the crazy rumors about her house exploding," Hikari added.

"There, you see?" Asuka said triumphantly. "We're probably worried about nothing. In fact, the thing that kept Mana out today could be a reason to throw a party. I say we make the baka here cook all the food for it." She added, playfully nudging Shinji in the side with her elbow.

Hikari smiled. "I think it's a little early to start planning the celebration, Asuka," she said. "But if Mana's mother _did_ wake up, I wouldn't mind…"

Before the class rep could finish her sentence, the three of them turned a corner, bringing them within sight of Mana's house. Or, more accurately, of where Mana's house was _supposed_ to be. Hikari's words died unspoken on her lips.

The Kirishima residence was gone. In its place, there was nothing but a gigantic pile of debris that had once been a house. There was no sign of what had caused the catastrophe, but yellow police tape ringed the property, proclaiming that the area was a crime scene.

"Mein Gott," Asuka breathed.

"Wh-What happened?" Hikari asked. Her face was pale with horror, making her freckles stand out in stark relief.

"I don't know," Shinji said, his voice barely more than a whisper.

_But whatever did happen, I think it's safe to say we can cancel the party,_ he added silently.

* * *

One of the things Mana had discovered while working down in Mayumi's Batcave was that it was extremely easy to identify a person entering from the doorway to the rest of Yamagishi Manor. He or she would cast such a long shadow that Mana could clearly see it from her place by the main computer terminal.

So when the lady of the house entered, Mana didn't even have to look up to realize it was not Motomu.

"Hello, Mayumi," she said. "How was school?"

"Dull, as usual," the raven-haired girl replied, deliberately ignoring the joking tone of Mana's question.

"Can't say I'm surprised," Mana replied. If there was one thing the mechanical prodigy wouldn't miss about her brief foray into normal life, it was that endless Second Impact lecture.

"Your friends were very worried about you." Mayumi added.

"Oh," Mana said softly, her shoulders slumping. "Hey, I don't suppose there's any way you could—?"

"I'm not taking the risk of running messages for you," Mayumi said firmly, finally reaching the chair where Mana sat. Her dark eyes narrowed slightly as she took in her newest employee's appearance. "Nice top." She commented.

Mana couldn't help but smirk at that. She was wearing a blue, short-sleeved T-shirt with a red and yellow S-shield emblem on the front. "Thank you," she said. "Motomu was kind enough to get it for me, after he found out I was a big fan of Supergirl."

Mayumi crossed her arms over her chest. "And just how did my butler discover that about you?" she asked. "Have you spent all day chatting with him?"

Mana _thought_ the other girl was actually joking there, but Mayumi was so deadpan it was hard to tell. "No," she answered, her smirk widening. "He was kind enough to go out today and buy me a new wardrobe, since all my things went up with my house. When he asked me if there was anything else I'd like him to get, I asked for the latest copy of the _Tokyo Tattler_."

"And since the superwomen are all they seem to report on these days, he asked you which one was your favorite," Batgirl deduced.

"That's right," the auburn-haired girl said, glancing at the copy of the tabloid, which was on top of the terminal.

As usually happened, Supergirl was on the cover. The _Tattler_ was still speculating that Power Girl and Supergirl were separate people, and that the latter had somehow intimidated the former into getting out of the superhero business.

Mana found that hypothesis to be utterly absurd, mostly because she felt certain that Power Girl wouldn't just hang up her cape and abandon her activities helping everyone in the city.

Mayumi cleared her throat, regaining Mana's attention. "How's your work coming along?" she asked.

"Not bad. Here, take a look," Mana said, and the design schematics she was working on appeared on the screen.

Mayumi frowned. "Are you redesigning the Exosuit entirely?" she asked. "And why are you making the armor feminine in appearance this time? Why not stick with making it look like a man?"

"Because going around pretending to be a guy was just weird, and now that NERV knows who I am, there's no point in trying to misdirect people with that ruse anymore," Mana said. "Also, it was sometimes disorienting, controlling this metal body that was so much bigger than I am. I also wouldn't mind letting the Light of the Divine know that this whole time they've been getting their collective ass kicked by a girl, either."

"All right," Mayumi said, "but this design looks radically different from the one Hokkaido Heavy Industries developed. You can't spend six months rebuilding it from scratch, Kirishima."

"I understand that, but there's two issues with that," Mana said. "First, it won't take me very long to complete the design. I'm very good, and this computer of yours is awesome. I want one, by the way."

"I'll see what I can do," Mayumi replied sarcastically. "What's the other issue?"

"The HHI design doesn't work," Mana said. "Mom and me had to tinker with it on our own for some time to work out all the kinks. So since I have to rewrite the design anyway, I figured that I might as well make the new armor as powerful as it can possibly be. There were a lot of things we could've done to supe it up, but didn't because of cost concerns. Fortunately, I now have unlimited funding."

The auburn-haired girl gave Mayumi a look, daring her to try and rescind that part of the offer. The new Exosuit would probably be _significantly_ more expensive than the infiltration suit Mayumi herself wore, and that wasn't cheap. This would be the height of irony in Mana's opinion, since the original Exosuit had been designed specifically to be cheaper and more cost effective than the infiltration suit.

"That's fine, so long as you don't take forever with this," Mayumi said, adjusting her glasses. "You could probably use more power, anyway. That cult has some nasty tricks, as you know."

"Yeah," Mana agreed dryly. "About that, since you seem to know so damn much about everything, care to tell me about that tar junk those guys used to get all bulky?"

"Its key ingredient is a drug that was developed and manufactured on Santa Prisca, a little island off the coast of mainland Cuba," Mayumi answered, rattling off the information without the slightest pause. "That stuff has the ability to cause radical muscle growth all by itself, but it's extremely expensive. Some drug traders stretch their supply out further by adding a myriad of other drugs, creating tar, a much more dangerous substance. Most people can only survive one use."

"And how many more doses does the Light have?" Mana asked.

Mayumi shook her head. "That I don't know," she confessed. "I got to their supplier before he could sell them more than one shipment, but I still haven't found out how much was in the first shipment."

"Wonderful," Mana groaned. "So they could be all out…or they could have several more doses."

A small smirk appeared on Mayumi's face. "I never said this job would be easy," she said, clapping Mana on the shoulder.

* * *

"Ding-dong the jackass is gone! Ding-dong the stupid jackass is gone!"

Shinji and Asuka, who had been sitting quietly in the living room and doing homework, both started when the door to the apartment abruptly opened and _that_ song bar went ringing through the place. After trading a quick glance, they got up and headed to the kitchen, where they found their guardian.

Misato was just placing a couple of pizza boxes on the table, and she had a plastic bag slung over her arm, containing a two liter bottle of cola and a six pack of beer. It was expensive beer, too, Shinji noted, not the cheaper Yeibisu or Boa brand stuff she usually drank.

"Ding-dong the stupid jackass is _gooooonnne!_" Misato finished, the final, warbling note causing both Shinji and Asuka to wince.

Singing ability was _not_ one of Misato Katsuragi's talents, that was for sure.

"What the hell are you going on about?" Asuka demanded, casting an irritated look at the purple-haired woman.

"Great news!" Misato said exuberantly. "They finally canned that bastard Chiron! I never have to put up with him again!"

"Chiron, he's…the boss of Section Two, right?" Shinji asked, remembering only after a second or two of racking his brain.

"Well, he was," Misato chuckled. "Of course, they didn't actually say they fired him. The memo said he resigned, but the jerk told me more than once that he intended to work for NERV until he retired. They _fired_ his ass."

"Oh," Shinji said, not sure how to react to Misato's display of glee at somebody's apparent misfortune, "I see."

"Trust me, he totally deserves it, Shinji-kun," Misato said. "The guy seemed to go out of his way to always take the most brutal, nastiest course of action possible. Of course, I'm not naïve enough to believe his replacement will be much better, but at least the new guy probably won't use his free time to be a major pain in my ass!"

"Whatever," Asuka grumbled.

"Anyway, I thought we should celebrate," Misato said, "so I went out and got us some take out, along with something special for Mama." She indicated the high end beer.

"Um, all right," Shinji said.

It was this comment that finally caused Misato to turn her full attention to her charges. She had know that they wouldn't care much about Chiron's abrupt departure from NERV, since they never really had to deal with the man. However, she'd expected to get something that at least resembled enthusiasm out of them in response to the pizza.

"What's with the long faces, you two?" she asked.

"Our friend's house exploded and now she's missing," Asuka answered bluntly.

Misato did a small double take. "_What?_"

Shinji and Asuka quickly explained the disturbing events and discoveries of the day to their increasingly incredulous guardian.

"We—and by that I mean _I_—made some calls after we got back home," Asuka said, casting a surly look in Shinji's direction. "It seems like nobody knows what really happened to Mana and her house. All anybody's sure of is that they didn't find her body buried in the rubble."

"Wow," Misato said. "That's…bizarre. You really saw what was left of her house?"

"Yes, already," Asuka grumbled, annoyed that she didn't believe them. "I'm telling you, it was a pile of debris."

"Hey," Shinji said thoughtfully, "Mana's house exploded right before NERV fired Chiron. You don't suppose that's not a coincidence, do you?"

Asuka rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because everything's connected for some reason," she said sarcastically. "Get real, baka, there's no way those two things have anything to do with each other."

* * *

Days passed, nearly all of which Mana spent down in the Batcave, working on her new Exosuit. She was as good as her word, and soon she had completed the exciting, creative phase of designing the thing, which meant she had to move onto the laborious task of actually building it.

"Damn," she hissed, as her hand slipped, and she accidentally fried a delicate component she was attempting to install. "Third one so far."

She had actually been excited when Motomu had brought her all the parts she needed to assemble her new armor, remembering the many good times she'd spent working on the original suit with her mother. However, what had been a hobby in the past was now very much like a job. Mayumi hadn't harassed her about it since she'd voiced her concerns that Mana's redesign would take months, but the auburn-haired girl still felt obligated to finish as soon as possible.

"Mana-san?" a kindly voice spoke from behind her.

"Hello, Motomu," the girl replied, putting down her tools and turning to face him. "I have told you that you can drop the honorific, haven't I?"

"Indeed you have," he agreed, "but there is the force of habit to contend with."

"So what brings you down here?" Mana asked, grabbing a small cloth and wiping off the sweat from her brow.

"I brought you your lunch," he said, handing over a small plate that was loaded with sushi rolls.

"Thank you, Motomu," she said, accepting the plate. "I'm going to be spoiled to having a butler by the time my 'contract' with Mayumi runs out."

Mana might've had reservations about letting the servant pamper her, but that didn't stop her from attacking the food, eating it as quickly as she possibly could without being outright boorish about it. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until she'd seen the plate.

"You seem to be having difficulties with your work," Motomu commented, looking at the suit.

Mana swallowed, then sighed. "Yeah," she said. "I've been messing up a lot of the more delicate work lately. It's a good thing that you brought me more than one of everything, or I'd already be asking for more stuff."

"That was Mayumi-san's idea. She knew you'd be needing spare parts for maintenance of the armor," Motomu said modestly.

"Either way, I'm glad you did," Mana said, chuckling tiredly. "It would be embarrassing to have to ask for more components before I even take the new suit for a test run. I don't know what's wrong me lately. I'm usually much better than this."

"May I make a suggestion?"

"Please," Mana said.

"You need a break," Motomu said. "You haven't taken a day off since you began this project. Indeed, you've been spending far more time in this cave than Mayumi-san has lately, which is never a good thing."

Mana smirked. "I'm not sure that Mayumi-san would look kindly on me taking a break."

"Mayumi-san pushes herself relentlessly, but she will not object to _you_ enjoying some recreation," Motomu said, his forever calm tone actually become somewhat sharp at Mana's implied accusation that his boss was some sort of slave driver. "Get out of this cave for a while, Mana-san. Relax your mind for a time. Perhaps indulge in some physical exertion." He added in a more placid voice.

"Sounds like a good idea, except for that last part," Mana said, rolling her stiff shoulders. "It's a little difficult to get exercise when I can't even go outside."

"The manor is equipped with both a private gym and an indoor swimming pool," Motomu informed her.

Mana blinked. "Really?"

She supposed that the gym made sense when she thought about it, but the knowledge that there was a pool in the big mansion shocked her anew. She'd never stop being surprised at the level of opulence in Yamagishi Manor, apparently.

Motomu smiled. "The gym and the pool and located next to one another, on the east side of the first floor," he said, while taking Mana's now empty plate.

"Thank you, Motomu-san," Mana said, giving the man a quick but respectful bow, then eagerly heading for the stairs that led up to the non-secret parts of the mansion.

_A pool. I can't believe it,_ she thought with a rueful smile and a shake of her head. She might visit Mayumi's gym later—goodness knew that workout wouldn't kill her; she _had_ recently spent several days sitting in front of a computer screen, after all—but she knew what she'd be checking out first.

Heading to her room (which was almost three times larger than the one she'd had at her now destroyed home, despite being a guest bedroom), Mana quickly pulled open one of her dresser drawers and removed a pink bikini. She had wondered why Motomu had purchased the swimsuit when he'd gone out a bought a new wardrobe for her, but she'd never thought much of it. She'd just assumed he'd bought it by mistake and left it at that.

_Shows what I know,_ she thought as she shed her clothes, then put on the swimwear. That done, Mana threw a robe over herself and headed out. Soon locating the pool room, she threw open the door, feeling a wave of humid air hitting her.

"Wow," Mana said as she as she entered, looking at the rectangular pool; it was easily bigger than the one at the school. There was even a hot tub off to the side.

With a smile, she shed her robe and dove into the water, and was mildly surprised to discover that the pool wasn't heated.

_Would've thought that Miss Money-to-Burn would keep it as warm as a bath most of the time,_ she mused.

Still, the water wasn't frigid, just refreshingly cool. The auburn-haired girl swam a few laps from one end of the pool to the other, and she had to admit that it felt good to really get her blood pumping. Her mind started to feel clearer, too, as she allowed all the frustration and stress that had come from building the new armor ebb away. Soon, potential solutions to problems that had seemed virtually insurmountable began to pop into her head, but she dismissed them for the moment.

_Don't think about that stuff right now,_ she commanded herself sternly as she touched one end of the pool and quickly reversed direction, bringing her head above water long enough to take a lungful of air. _Just relax for a little while._

Eventually getting tired of doing laps, Mana surfaced and contented herself with swimming around the pool sedately. She soon started to grow bored with this activity, though.

_I wish my friends were here,_ Mana thought with a small sigh.

A little smile appeared on her face as she imagined it, though. Asuka, Hikari, Shinji, and herself all hanging at the pool and having fun was a pleasant vision, and the thought of how the often high-strung Third Child would react to being confronted with the sight of so much female skin nearly made her giggle.

Mana was about to get out of the pool, planning to dry off, change, and maybe hit the gym when the door to the room opened and Mayumi entered, clad in a robe. The auburn-haired girl was momentarily surprised to see her; it was still the middle of the day, and she'd thought that the lady of the manor would still be at school.

Then she remembered that it was Sunday.

_Duh,_ Mana thought, feeling embarrassed even though she'd figured it out just before she could ask the other girl what she was doing at home.

With no school and most of her time spent working down in the Batcave, Mana's days were definitely starting to blur together.

Mayumi acknowledged the other girl's presence with only a fractional nod in her direction, which was a relief to the auburn-haired girl. Despite Motomu's words, she had half expected Mayumi to immediately snap at her for not working on the Exosuit.

Then the raven-haired girl removed her robe and glasses, placing both of them on a plastic chair, and Mana's jaw dropped.

She knew, of course, that the Mayumi Yamagishi she had always thought existed—a quiet little mouse, sorely lacking in confidence and most comfortable with her nose in a book. A girl who was physically weak and undeveloped as well as painfully shy—was just a facade that the _real_ Mayumi had constructed to make the idea that she was Batgirl was seem absurd.

Yet even so, she still couldn't be shocked at the differences between this girl and the one she'd once thought existed.

Mayumi was wearing a bikini. It was black (of course), and far more revealing than the one the auburn-haired girl had on. Not long ago, Mana would've bet that Mayumi wouldn't have worn a swimsuit—_any_ swimsuit—in front of anybody if you paid her.

But far more shocking than the fact that the raven-haired girl was in a bikini was the physique that it put on display.

_She __**ripped**__,_ Mana thought in awe, deciding there was simply no other way to accurately describe the raven-haired girl. Though not bulky, Mayumi was remarkably defined and looked extremely solid. Coiled, sinewy muscles rippled and shifted beneath her skin every time she made the slightest move.

_How in the world did nobody at school even notice how buff she is?_ Mana wondered. _I mean, she had to have changed for gym and stuff in the locker room with the rest of us…right?_

Thinking about it, she realized she couldn't remember having ever seen Mayumi in the locker room before or after phys ed.

Of course, Mana had realized that Mayumi had to be in peak shape; even with the enhanced strength the infiltration suit gave her, she needed to be in order to pull off some of the stunts Mana had seen her perform as Batgirl. Still, she never would have guessed that the dark lady looked like this.

_And to top it all off, I think she's got a bigger bust than me,_ Mana observed with a mixture of exasperation and wry humor.

Mayumi, who had been stretching languidly as she prepared for a swim, finally turned her head to look at Mana. The young gear head blushed, embarrassed, and quickly looked down. Unfortunately, this had the effect of making her gaze at her own form, which suddenly seemed very unimpressive.

Usually, Mana liked her body. She was fit enough, and she liked to think that she was fairly attractive. However, next to Mayumi, she suddenly felt like a skinny wimp.

_She could probably snap me like I was a twig,_ she thought. Abruptly, Mana found herself remembering that on her first outing as Steel, she had briefly decided that Batgirl was probably the only superwoman in the city she could take. _What a joke that is._ _She could probably rip apart Steel with her bare hands!_

Finally finished stretching, the girl in question dove into the pool, barely creating any splash at all as her form knifed into the water. A second later, she was swimming to the other side of the pool at a furious pace, and Mana realized that she was intent on doing some laps herself.

Curious as to how long the raven-haired girl would use her pool to workout, Mana settled down in her seat and waited.

And waited.

And _waited_.

Her disbelief at Mayumi's stamina eventually turning to boredom, Mana briefly left the pool room and then returned with an empty notebook and a pencil, which she used to sketch out some basic ideas she had for upgrades to Batgirl's arsenal.

By the time Mayumi emerged from the water, Mana had filled in half the pages, and the daylight was fading. The raven-haired girl couldn't have started her workout any later than one o'clock in the afternoon, by Mana's estimation.

"I'm surprised you're still here," Mayumi commented as she dried off with a large white towel.

"Just thought I'd get some work done in a place that actually lets in a little sunlight," Mana replied, gesturing toward the room's high windows.

"Mmm," Mayumi grunted in response. "I thought I'd change and then hit the gym for a while before I went out. Care to join me?"

_Oh, sure, I'd love to use the little neon colored dumbbells while watching you bench three times your own body weight, because I just don't feel inadequate __**enough**__ yet,_ Mana thought sarcastically, past the point of being surprised that Mayumi still felt she had the energy to perform more exercise and then go out and be Batgirl after her marathon swim.

"No, thank you," she said quietly. "I should probably get back to work on the armor."

"Suit yourself," the raven-haired girl replied, and started to leave.

"Mayumi," Mana called after her.

"Yes?" Mayumi asked, stopping and glancing over her shoulder.

"Do you ever, you know, do anything that's _not_ related to you being Batgirl?" Mana asked awkwardly.

"Not if I can help it," Mayumi replied simply, then started on her way again, soon leaving Mana alone in the pool room.

And just like that, any envy that Mana might've started to feel toward anything Mayumi had—her immense wealth, her unreal level of physical fitness, her surprisingly good looks—evaporated in a puff of smoke.

* * *

Iwao Chiron sensed light shining down on him.

The (former) Chief of Section Two didn't know how long he'd lived in nothing but pain and darkness. All he knew was that it felt as though his universe had been complete blackness, occupied by only the sensation of fire and pain, for what felt like a _very_ long time.

Yet now there seemed to be light beyond his closed eyelids, as though he was facing the morning sun.

That tantalized him, tempted him as nothing else ever had. He felt enormously tired, so much so that just thinking was a titanic struggle, but he wanted to see that light. It represented an escape from the hell he'd been existing in for so long.

Marshalling every last ounce of strength he possessed, Chiron managed to open his eyes just a tiny crack. The brilliance of the light he so wanted to see dazzled him, and he winced, tears springing to eyes. However, he resisted the reflex to close them, fearing that he'd be lost to darkness and flame if he did that.

Slowly, gradually, he became adjusted to the bright white light, and the fog wrapped around his mind seemed to recede just a tiny bit as he grew aware of his surroundings.

The lights above him were operating lights, he realized. He was on a cool metal table, but his body was covered with a sheet from the neck down. If they were going to operate on him, shouldn't the sheet at least be lower on his body?

More importantly, what had happened to him?

Eyes still half-lidded, he began to gaze at things other than the lights. Several people were standing around him, though Chiron seemed to have lost the ability to count just how many there were exactly.

_Akagi…_

Like the rest of the people surrounding Chiron, the head of Project-E was wearing green surgical scrubs, and a mask obscured most of her face, while a tight cap covered her head. However, he saw a few bleach blond strands poking out, and he knew immediately that it was her.

Again, his gaze swept out at the people around him, even though just moving his eyeballs like that felt about as tiring as running a marathon.

None of the others were small enough to be Ibuki, which was bad, he realized. Akagi kept the little beanpole at her side at all times, except when she had to do something nasty in the service of NERV. Ibuki was as much of a bleeding heart as Katsuragi, if not worse, and she would've reacted badly to seeing her precious sempai do those things.

Normally, he felt nothing but disdain for people like Ibuki, but now that _he_ was apparently the focus of the unpleasant activities, he discovered that he very much wanted the bleeding heart around!

Akagi said something to one of the other people hovering around him. Chiron couldn't make out what it was; the sound of her voice seemed to be coming from a great distance away.

However, he didn't really need to know exactly what she'd said, because in response, the man she'd spoken to handed her a very wicked looking instrument.

Panic gripped Chiron then, and he tried to cry out, to fight, to make it obvious that he _didn't want_ them to do whatever it was they had planned. However, his attempt to thrash about produced absolutely no movement, and his would-be shout of protest came out as a muffled groan. The beeping of some heart monitor easily drowned him out.

Akagi said something in a sharp tone, and one of the other people in scrubs reacted immediately, picking up a syringe and quickly injecting it into Chiron's skin.

He barely felt the prick of the needle sliding into his flesh, but the effect of the chemical certainly registered. Chiron abruptly felt even more exhausted than he had a second ago, and despite his best efforts, his eyelids began to droop closed as the darkness reached out to claim him once more.

_No,_ he thought weakly as his eyes finally shut.

The last thing he was aware of was the sound of the electric bone saw starting up just as he lost consciousness.

* * *

"So, is it done?"

Mana's eye twitched at the off-handed, almost indifferent tone of her employer. Of course, she had not expected Mayumi to give her a standing ovation in response to being shown the Exosuit mark II—indeed, Mana was mildly surprised the raven-haired girl had even asked for a presentation.

However, considering how much hard work Mana had performed in a short period of time to bring the thing into existence, she had hoped for something more than a simple "So is it done?"

Especially since the newest version of her armor was a truly impressive feat of engineering, in Mana's humble opinion.

"It still needs to be tested," she answered in a professional manner, despite her annoyance. Why had she expected any excitement out of Mayumi anyway? "I was able to simulate how my designs would perform with ORACLE, but even so, I need real life data. Assuming everything checks out, though, it's good to go."

"Good," Mayumi said, holding her hands behind her back as she walked in a slow circle around the armor.

Steel's new metal suit was housed inside a large box frame composed of thick iron bars. Mana had built it and installed a motorized winch to raise up the top portion of the armor, mostly because she'd been very sick and tired of the pulley system she'd employed back at her now destroyed home.

"It looks like the original suit's little sister," Mayumi commented.

Mana thought she detected just a hint of derision in the other girl's tone, and that was enough to make her bristle, even though it was true, in all fairness. Like its predecessor, the new Exosuit was a dull, gunmetal gray, with a second layer of more lightly colored plates on the chest, upper back, shoulders, and lower legs. The rivet cannons on both forearms had made a reappearance.

The auburn-haired gearhead had even taken the time to carefully sculpt the metal to give the impression of considerable musculature. She told herself that she had done this as a tribute to the first Exosuit, which had had a similar look, and not because Mayumi had made her feel like a little weakling.

"It might _look_ similar on the outside, but it's very different under the hood," she said. "This suit is far more powerful than the original, despite being smaller."

Mayumi's expression was largely unreadable, but Mana still thought she saw skepticism there. "How so?"

"For starters, just being able to spare no expense allowed me to _greatly_ increase the physical strength of the suit," she said. "This armor's flight capability and durability have also been improved dramatically."

She carefully studied the other girl's face while she mentioned the money issue, but Mayumi never even twitched, much to Mana's amazement. Even she was somewhat appalled with how much cash she'd managed to spend in order to make the new armor as powerful as she possibly could. Half the time when she'd been working, she'd expected Mayumi to rescind her "unlimited funding" promise, but that just hadn't happened.

_Girl's got more money than God,_ she thought.

"I trust there are more upgrades than that," Mayumi said.

Mana couldn't help but smirk slightly, her professional visage finally crumbling. "With all the cool technology in the Yamagishi Enterprises database available for me to play with? You better believe it," she said. "For one thing, the cannon in the left arm fires rivets made out of a special alloy that will explode with a great enough impact."

"That could be more dangerous for you than your enemies," Mayumi warned.

"Please. The metal is completely inert until exposed to air. It won't go off until _I_ want it to," the auburn-haired girl said. "Anyway, that's nothing compared to this…"

Mana removed the "head" from the armor. Whereas the first Exosuit had had a generic male face, this one had a generic female face, and rather than being bald, it appeared to be wearing a helmet. She had considering trying to make something that looked like a braid for it, just to girl up the suit a bit more, but ultimately she'd decided against it. It would've been purely aesthetic, anyway.

"Look inside," she said, handing it to Mayumi.

The raven-haired girl did, and her eyebrows went up as she immediately recognized the components that were attached to the top of the helmet's interior.

"Those look like…"

"A-10 connector clips," Mana nodded. "Yes, I was able to adapt the technology for use in controlling the Exosuit. Now I won't need to push those stupid buttons with my toes to use the jets anymore."

"Yamagishi Enterprise's top scientists have been trying to modify A-10 connector tech to allow a person to control a regular machine for over a year now," Mayumi remarked, looking mildly impressed.

Mana flushed with pleasure despite herself, but she tried not to show it and instead forged on with her little presentation. "As I'm sure you've also noted, the new suit comes with two hammers," she said.

Mayumi nodded, glancing at the magnetic plate on the armor's back. One of the new hammers was currently attached to it, though this one had an axe on one side. "Progressive blade, I assume?" she asked.

"Of course," Mana said, "but it's the other hammer that I'm _really_ proud of."

The second hammer was currently being held in an upright position by a vice which was clamped down on the bottom of its long handle. "Looks like an oversized sledgehammer to me," Mayumi said.

"What have I told you about judging by appearances?" Mana asked.

Without another word, she went over to her little corner of the Batcave, reached under her workbench, and pulled out a Toastmaster. Mayumi had been mystified as to why Mana had put in a request for one, but since the auburn-haired girl had stated she didn't plan on putting it into the armor, the dark lady had allowed it. Now Mana grunted, struggling to lift the thing up.

_How in the world did I ever contribute to the design of something so damn clunky?_ The auburn-haired girl wondered as she took careful aim at her hammer and pulled the trigger.

A beam of fiery orange light burst forth from the barrel and hit the hammer. However, rather than simply melting, as one would have expected, the hammer seemed to absorb the energy from the beam. When Mana stopped firing, the hammerhead glowed briefly before it once more became inert.

Mayumi arched an eyebrow. "How does it do that?"

"S2 engine technology," Mana answered.

That did it; the raven-haired girl finally looked surprised. "You're kidding," she said, eyes widening ever so slightly.

"Well, perhaps I'm _exaggerating_," Mana conceded. "I'm very good, but I'm not _that_ good. Humanity is only starting to understand Super Solenoid Theory, after all, and all indications point to an S2 engine—or an S2 generator, which I suppose would be more accurate—being obscenely _dangerous_, too. And, of course, if I could make an actual S2 engine, I wouldn't put it in the hammer, because—"

"So what's inside the hammer, and what's it got to do with an S2 engine?" Mayumi interrupted her.

"I managed to simplify things by making an S2 _battery_ instead of an S2 engine," Mana said. "That hammer is incapable of generating energy on its own, but it can absorb a theoretically limitless amount of it. It works with any form of energy, too, except kinetic, and then the hammer can discharge that energy."

"Show me," Mayumi ordered.

Nodding, Mana carefully placed the Toastmaster on the ground and then went over to the hammer. Adjusting the vice so the hammer was pointing downwards, she then pushed a button on the handle.

Immediately, the same orange light that the hammer had soaked up like a sponge erupted from the metal head and streamed down toward the Toastmaster, quickly reducing the huge firearm to molten slag.

"I think I'll be able to take care of that crazy cult," Mana said.

"So you will," Mayumi replied with a nod and a tiny smile, the first genuine one Mana had seen her display. "I look forward to seeing what you do with my own arsenal."

To the raven-haired girl's surprise, Mana suddenly seemed hesitant. "Right," she said distantly.

Mayumi frowned, hearing the hesitation in the other girl's voice. "Something wrong?" she asked.

"Oh, no," Mana reassured her. "It's just, I have a request…"

Mayumi eyes narrowed.

"You don't _have_ to do it," the auburn-haired girl added quickly. "I realize it wasn't part of our deal. I'll still give upgrading your stuff my best effort if you say no."

Mayumi sighed. "What do you want?"

Mana told her.

"I don't know," Mayumi said, crossing her arms. "What you're asking for isn't exactly easy, even for me."

"Please," Mana implored her. "I really need this, and they deserve to know what happened. Please."

"I'll see what I can do," Mayumi grumbled reluctantly.

* * *

"Dear God in Heaven, what have I done?" Ritsuko Akagi whispered.

Unsurprisingly, the deity to which the scientist spoke didn't answer, not that she'd expected a reply. Her mother had not raised her to believe in any gods or supernatural forces. Even if she had, Ritsuko's time and experiences at NERV would have killed her faith, she was quite sure of that much.

Forcing all thoughts of spiritual matters from her mind, she looked down at the table where Chiron lay. His form was currently covered by a large white sheet, but she knew exactly was beneath it. Oh, yes she did.

_I wish I didn't though,_ she thought.

Her grim musings were interrupted as the door behind her opened, and one of the tiny handful of techs who was allowed any access to Terminal Dogma entered. His eyes darted to the man-shaped bulge under the white sheet, but he knew better than to ask.

"Here's the item that you asked for, Doctor," he said, handing her a small lead box.

"Thank you," she replied, "that will be all."

With a nod, he departed, again leaving the bottle blond scientist alone with her thought. Sighing, she went over to a desk in the corner and started up a tape recorder.

"Project-M audio record, fourteenth entry," she began. "It's nearly complete. All systems check out, and we should be ready to awaken Chiron soon. All that remains is to install and calibrate the permanent power source."

She paused to light a cigarette, not caring that anyone who ever listened to the tape would have to deal with a few seconds of dead air. She needed a nicotine fix to calm herself down; her hands were shaking so badly she could barely light her smoke.

"There aren't a lot of power sources on Earth capable of meeting Project-M's needs," she said after taking a drag. "At least, not safely. An N2 power cell wouldn't do the job, and using anything nuclear would make me the biggest hypocrite on the planet." She chuckled darkly, remembering the criticism she'd thrown Shiro Tokita's way during the Jet Alone unveiling ceremony.

"Fortunately, we happen to have a perfect alternative," she continued eventually, "and considering who NERV had in mind when Project-M was originally dreamed up, I guess it was always a forgone conclusion what we'd use."

She opened up the lead box that the tech had brought her, and an eerie green light began to pour out.

* * *

"Asuka, where are you going?" Shinji asked.

"Out," the redhead snapped curtly.

It was evening at the Katsuragi residence, and Misato was stuck working a late shift at NERV, leaving her two charges alone in the apartment. The Third Child had been watching TV when the redhead had emerged from her room, dressed like she planning to go somewhere.

"Out? That's it?" Shinji asked. "Just 'out'?"

"You have a problem with that?" she challenged him. "Gott, you're acting like you think you're my father or something, baka."

"Sorry," Shinji said, "but if Misato comes back and asks where you went, I'd like to have an answer for her besides 'out.'"

"I'll be back before Misato comes home, relax," Asuka grumbled.

Not giving Shinji any chance to protest further, the redhead quickly left the apartment, leaving the Third Child to sigh in defeat and turn his attention back to his TV show. Once out of her home, though, Asuka didn't immediately leave the building, as one might have expected.

Instead, the redhead made a beeline for an electrical closet she'd been visiting often lately. Once inside, she quickly grabbed the red duffel she'd hidden inside and opened it, pulling out her Supergirl costume.

Minutes later, the original Girl of Steel was flying through the sky over Tokyo-3, combing the city and much of the surrounding area with her X-ray vision.

_Still no sign of Mana,_ she thought in frustration. _Damn, where the hell was she taken? I guess I have to expand my search perimeter some more._

Supergirl had been making her way outwards from the city for several days now, hunting for any sign of her friend. Unfortunately, all her efforts thus far had been fruitless, and even she could only search so quickly.

_I still can't believe she just disappeared like that one day,_ Supergirl thought, angrily clenching her hands into fists.

She had only recently switched from her old Power Girl persona to her new Supergirl one, and the change had been meant to reflect a shift in her attitudes. Where before the Girl of Steel had gone out a rescued people for personal glory alone, certain revelations had recently inspired her to become a true hero.

However, not long after she'd decided to do this, one of her closest friends was kidnapped right from under her, and if she couldn't even protect the people she was close to, then what kind of a hero was she?

"I'll find you, Mana, I promise," she whispered with great determination. "And after I do that, I'll make sure whoever kidnapped you and destroyed your home is brought to justice."

* * *

Meanwhile, back the Katsuragi apartment, Shinji had grown bored of watching TV, and he'd surrendered control of the remote to Pen-Pen.

The penguin had, predictably, changed the station to Animal Planet immediately.

With a small sigh, the Third Child opened the glass doors on the veranda and stepped out into the cool air. It was a beautiful night, he mused.

_I wish Mana was here,_ he thought sadly.

Shinji still couldn't believe that there had been no word regarding his friend since her abrupt disappearance. For a while, he'd been certain that the Light of the Divine was responsible, but the police had investigated them, thoroughly searching their headquarters without finding a shred of evidence that they were to blame. In fact, rumor had it that Supergirl herself had looked into them, too. Yet she had apparently come up empty-handed as well.

The Third Child looked up at the stars, trying to squelch his disgust at himself for being unable to help her in any way.

_I hope she's okay, wherever she is,_ he said, feeling nearly overwhelmed by his fear for the safety of the kind and very pretty girl who for some reason saw him as one of her closest friends.

He was about to head back inside when he saw a thin steam of dust falling to the ground just to the right of him. Frowning, Shinji looked upwards, directing his gaze at the underside of the veranda for the apartment directly above his.

He was just in time to see a dark shape swooping down toward him before it landed right next to him. Caught completely by surprise, Shinji quickly backed up a couple of steps, putting himself of danger of falling off the veranda. Of course, this only heightened his panic, and he drew in a deep breath, preparing to scream.

A hand clamped down hard over his mouth before he could make a sound, however, while a second snaked around to his back, pushing him away from the guard rail so he didn't fall to his doom.

"I'm not here to hurt you," a voice hissed, and it was only then that Shinji realized the black shape was a person, specifically a girl.

The Third Child froze, moving nothing except his eyeballs. These first darted downwards, taking in the yellow outline on the girl's chest, then back up, gazing into the dark lenses in her cowl.

_Batgirl…_

"Do you promise not to scream if I let go of you?" she asked.

He nodded as best he could, which wasn't very well. The caped crusader's hold on his face was like a vice.

However, she got the message and slowly, carefully released him. Shinji kept his word and didn't cry out for help. It wasn't like there was anyone around to hear him, anyway.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" he asked her tentatively.

"It's about your friend Mana," she said.

The Third Child's eyes widened. "You know where she is?" he asked eagerly, all his fear of the dark lady instantly forgotten.

Batgirl nodded. "She's currently taking sanctuary at my place."

Shinji frowned. "Sanctuary? From who? The Light of the Divine?"

The caped crusader shook her head. "I can't explain, and honestly, it's better for you not to know," she said in a voice that brooked no disagreement. "I'm here because Mana wants to see you. I can take you to her."

"Okay, let's go then," Shinji agreed at once.

"Not so fast," Batgirl said, her voice turning into a low growl. "I don't let just anyone know where my headquarters is. If you want to come, I'm going to have to knock you out."

Shinji blinked. "Knock me out?"

Batgirl opened one of the compartments on her utility belt, removing a small aerosol can and a white cloth. "It's like chloroform, only gentler."

"I don't know…" Shinji said doubtfully.

There were rumors about the city's dark lady, bad rumors. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of taking a dose of knockout gas and letting her drag his unconscious body to wherever she wanted.

"I won't force you, but consider this," she said. "If I meant you harm, there are at least 13 different ways I could incapacitate you in under 10 seconds right now."

She had a point, Shinji silently admitted to himself; there was no doubt in his mind that she could easily have him on the ground, begging for morphine if she so desired, and he did want to see Mana so much…

"All right," he agreed. "I'll go with you."

Nodding, Batgirl sprayed a healthy dose of whatever was inside that can onto the cloth and handed it to him. Barely able to believe what he was doing, Shinji pressed it over his nose and inhaled deeply.

The effect was instantaneous. One minute the Third Child was fully conscious, the next he was out like a light. He began to fall forward, and Batgirl caught him, easily slinging his weight over her shoulder and holding him in place with one hand. With her other hand, she grabbed at the grappling gun at her belt. She fired it off and was soon swinging through the city, _en route_ back to her home.

* * *

Back in the Batcave, Mana was pacing anxiously back and forth; the auburn-haired girl was really starting to regret her request at this point.

"It seems like they've been gone a long time," she said. "What if something happened?"

"I'm sure everything is quite fine," Motomu replied. The butler was at a nearby table, working with a tea set he'd brought down into the cave. "Mayumi-san is more than capable of such a simple mission. One lump or two?"

"Hmm, oh, I don't want any tea, thank you," Mana said. "And Mayumi seemed pretty reluctant to do this. I don't think _she_ considered it a simple mission."

"I suspect she was just annoyed at the request, and at the fact that her conscience wouldn't allow her to turn it down," Motomu replied with just a hint of a smirk. "I really do think you could use a cup to calm you down."

"Oh, all right, one lump then," Mana relented, knowing the butler wouldn't stop until she gave in.

Motomu added a spoonful of sugar to the cup of English tea, stirred the mixture, then handed it to Mana. The auburn-haired girl accepted it and drank the hot brew as quickly as she could, wanting only to placate the butler. The tea was excellent, but it did little to calm her nerves, as she'd expected.

"I'd feel terrible if something happened to Mayumi while she was getting Shinji, never mind if something happened to both of them," she said as she handed the empty cup back to Motomu.

"Then it's a good thing that I can hear the Batcycle approaching," he said, and indeed, the sound of a motor was becoming audible inside the cave, Mana realized. "I'll take my leave now, Mana-san."

Gathering up his tray, the butler departed the Batcave as the dark lady pulled into it, with an obviously unconscious passanger riding behind her on her motorcycle. The boy was leaning heavily against her back, his body as limp as that of a rag doll.

"What did you do to him?" Mana asked.

"You're welcome," Batgirl grumbled.

Mana winced. "Sorry," she said, "but why is he like this?"

"I didn't want him to see how to get in here," the dark lady replied, lifting Shinji off her bike and carrying him to a nearby chair. "This should wake him up." She added as she grabbed a small bottle and waved it beneath the boy's nose.

Shinji awoke with a start. "Uhh," he groaned. "Where am I?"

"The Batcave," replied the dark lady bluntly, before stepping aside so Shinji could see the other girl present.

"Mana!" he exclaimed.

"I'll leave the two of you alone," Batgirl said, then turned to Mana. "You have five minutes. Then I have to take him back."

"That's it?" Mana asked.

"If I don't get him back home before he's missed, it'll be bad news for everybody, including him," Batgirl growled, before stalking off.

Shinji and Mana both silently waited for the caped crusader to leave them in private before they even turned to look at each other. Once she was gone, the silence between them turned awkward, neither one knowing quite what to say.

"So…" Mana began uncomfortably. She'd thought about what she'd say to Shinji when this moment came, of course, but all those rehearsed words now seemed very hollow.

Fortunately, that one syllable was enough to get the Third Child moving. "Mana," he said, popping up out of the chair. "Are you okay? What _happened_?"

She gave him a small smile. "I'm fine, Shinji. There's not a scratch on me, see?" she gestured to herself.

"Okay, but why are you living down here with Batgirl? What happened to your house?" he asked, his wide eyes displaying his confusion quite plainly. "Do you need help?"

Mana sighed. "I found out that the people who attacked my mother weren't really members of the Light of the Divine," she explained. "They just pretended to be to make sure the blame fell on the crazy cult."

"Then who are they?" Shinji asked.

The auburn-haired girl shook her head sadly. "I can't tell you that, Shinji."

"Why not?" he asked, sounding hurt.

"Because your life is dangerous enough without you knowing that," Mana said vehemently. "Please, Shinji, I'm not going to tell you, and we don't have enough time for you to waste a minute trying to change my mind."

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "All right," he agreed reluctantly. "But you didn't tell me why you're here, or what happened to your house."

"The people who attacked my mother came for me," Mana said, "and for something I was keeping at my house. I had to blow it up to keep them from getting it. After I did, they tried to abduct me. Batgirl swooped in and saved me from them. I'm sort of working for her now. If everything goes right, I should be able to get back to the 'real world' once this is all done."

He hesitated for a moment, clearly trying to figure out what part of that story he should question first. "What did you have in your house that people would attack you for? And that would blow up with a big enough explosion to destroy the whole place?"

"Steel's armor," Mana answered.

This caused the Third Child to do a double take. Whatever answer he'd been expecting, that clearly hadn't been it. "You know Steel?" she asked.

"Shinji, I _was_ Steel," Mana answered. "The armor made me _look_ like a really big guy, but it was little old me inside that tin can the whole time."

"You're…you were Steel?" he breathed.

Shinji supposed it made sense in retrospect. The "man" in the metal suit _had_ gone around fighting the Light of the Divine almost exclusively, and it would explain why Mana's home had been frequently littered with tools and spare parts. Still, it came as quite a shock.

"Yes, I was Steel, and I will be again, in fact," Mana said, gesturing toward the empty suit of armor she'd constructed.

Shinji took the sight in silently for a few moments. "Mana, that's…that's really, really dangerous," he said.

"I know, but I made a deal with Bats, and besides, there's no other way out of this mess for me," she said. Shinji opened his mouth to protest that point, but she put a finger to his lips to silence him. "Believe me, I tried to find another solution, but I just couldn't. And you did say once that I'm smarter than you are." She added with a smirk.

Despite himself, Shinji smiled ruefully. "Yeah, I did, mostly because it's true," he admitted.

"Besides, even if I could run away from all this somehow, this is the only way I'll even have a chance of getting justice for Mom and me," she added, her expression darkening.

"Mana…I don't like this," she said.

She shrugged. "Neither do I, but I have to go through with it anyway," she said simply.

Shinji found he had no answer for that. "So, why did you ask Batgirl to bring me here, anyway?"

"I wanted let you know that I was okay, and tell you at least some of what was happening," she said. "Also, I just wanted to see you."

"Me?" he asked, surprised. "I would've thought you'd rather see Asuka or Hikari."

Mana shook her head. "They're both great, but you're the best friend I ever had," she said earnestly. "You made me feel a lot better during the worst moment of my life, which I really thought I could use right now. And…" she trailed off, suddenly hesitant.

"And?" Shinji asked after a few moments had passed.

_Oh, what the hell,_ Mana thought. _Who knows when I'll get another chance to do this?_

Before he could react, she took a step toward him and placed her hands on his cheeks, then leaned forward, gently pressing her lips to his.

He tensed up at first, and for a moment, Mana's heart sank, thinking that the kiss was completely unwelcome. However, he didn't push her away, and after a second he relaxed. Shinji, clearly unsure of what to do with his hands, slowly brought them up and placed them on her back.

After several moments, the two separated.

"Wow," Mana said, her face flushed.

"Yeah," Shinji agreed, looking even redder than he was. The EVA pilot wore an expression of dazed shock.

For a moment they just stood there, smiling at each other like fools. No words seemed to be needed, and Shinji, for his part, was currently unable to form coherent sentences, anyway.

Finally, though, Mana did speak. "By my guess, we've got maybe a minute left," she said. "Could you just hold me until Bats comes back?"

He nodded, wrapping his arms around her. He was slightly less awkward about it than he'd been a moment ago.

_I needed this,_ Mana decided, the feel of his body against hers having a calming effect on her troubled soul.

All too soon, the door to the Batcave opened, the dark lady striding back inside. Shinji and Mana immediately separated, not wanting the caped crusader to catch them in such an intimate position.

"Time's up," she announced.

"Right," Shinji agreed.

"Shinji," Mana spoke up, while Batgirl applied more of her knockout gas to a new cloth, "tell Asuka and Hikari that I'm okay."

He nodded. "Right."

"And Shinji?"

"Yeah?"

"I know it'll be a while before I can, you know, spend time with you the way that…the way that a girlfriend should," she stammered, blushing all over again. "You'll wait for me, won't you?"

He smiled, finding the idea that he might start looking for a new girl laughable. "Of course I will," he said.

"Good," Batgirl chimed in, pressing the cloth over his nose and mouth, and the Third Child was out like a light.

* * *

It was finally the day, the day Ritsuko had been working towards for weeks now but dreaded all the same.

Their permanent generator had been installed into Project-M, meaning it was finally time to wake Chiron up from his very long nap.

She looked around at her fellow scientists, the small group of people who had worked on this project with her. There seemed to be something alien about all of them, this group of people who would do a person what they had done to Chiron without even questioning it.

Ritsuko wondered if she would see that same thing in herself, if she were to look into a mirror. Much as she disliked the idea, she couldn't think of any good reason why she wouldn't. She was no better than they were, that was for sure.

"He's probably going to be angry when he wakes up and finds out what we've done," she addressed the group. "The safeties we've put in should insure that we're not in any danger from him, but if you'd like to leave now, I won't hold it against any of you."

The other scientists exchanged silent glances with one another for a few moments, then, without a word, they filed out of the room, leaving Ritsuko on her own.

_Figures,_ she thought disgustedly, remembering how none of the bridge techs had run off in the face of the Tenth Angel when Misato had offered to let them go. _I wish Maya was here._

With a sigh, she strode over to a nearby control panel and began the startup sequence. A small hum began to emanate from the sheet-covered form on the nearby table.

Then, Chiron sat up and the sheet fell off of him, allowing Ritsuko to see the thing she had created in motion at last.

"Dr. Akagi?" he muttered, sounding understandably dazed and confused.

"How do you feel?" She asked him.

"Strange," he replied. "My body feels totally numb. It's like I'm controlling my hands from…" Chiron trailed off as he brought the appendages in question in front of his face and saw them.

They weren't human hands.

His gaze immediately darted to Akagi, and despite knowing she could stop him cold with the push of a button, she swallowed.

"Chiron…Iwao…" she stammered nervously.

By this point, though, he had spotted the hand mirror she had waiting on the panel behind her. Getting up from the table, Chiron quickly began to stride across the room.

"Hey, wait a second!" Ritsuko said, getting into his path and holding up her hands. "Before you look at yourself, you should realize—!"

Chiron reached out and pushed her out of his way with enough force to send her sprawling on the floor. Ignoring her indignant cry, he grabbed hold of the mirror. He gasped when he saw his face, then turned to glare down at Akagi.

_"What did you __**do**__ to me?"_ He roared.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? I didn't realize how long I'd left poor Mana in a lurch. Sorry about that.

Anyway, it's a long chapter, but I didn't want to leave Mana languishing in the Batcave for more than one, so I just kept writing until she was ready to get back into the action.

On the subject of Bats, if anybody has any ideas for cool toys that Mana should make for Batgirl, please throw them my way. I've got a few dreamed up already, but I wouldn't say no to more options. Also, hardcore Batman fans will be able to guess what the key ingredient in tar is (at least in the SOE2 universe).

Also, I realize it might seem surprising that Mana was so quick to plant one on Shinji, when the other girls are being a lot less bold in their stories, but she's about as close as we get to a normal girl in the SOE2 series. It just seems to me that she'd be quicker to admit that she likes him and then express that to him.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

* * *

Omake

Batgirl: Closet Movie Geek?

"Batgirl," Man whispered, too quietly for anyone but herself to hear.

"Are you all right?" the caped crusader asked. Her voice was a low growl that seemed to come from someplace deep in her throat.

"Y-Yes," Mana stammered, suddenly feeling rooted to the spot by the force of Batgirl's glare.

"Good," Batgirl said. "Come with me."

"What?" Mana asked.

"Come with me," Batgirl repeated, "if you want to live. I am from the future."


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it, and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Seven:** Return

_"What did you __**do**__ to me?"_ Chiron roared.

Doctor Ritsuko Akagi, who was on the floor because the former Section Two Chief had shoved her in his haste to reach a mirror, was speechless. The only thing she could even _think_ was that it was perfectly obvious what she and NERV had done to him. However, something told her it probably wouldn't be the wisest move to actually _say_ that.

Disgusted, Chiron, flung the hand mirror he was holding carelessly away. It hit the tiled floor and shattered into a thousand pieces.

_Seven years bad luck,_ Ritsuko thought automatically.

Chiron approached her, his metal feet cracking the tile beneath them as he walked. He reached down, grabbed a hold of her white lab coat, then abruptly hoisted her to her feet. Ritsuko winced in pain.

"What did you do?" he roared in her face. "Tell me!"

"Saved your life," she answered, trying not to show how afraid she was. She had entirely forgotten about the safeties and the kill switch.

"What?" he hissed.

"You were mortally wounded," she explained, trying to pull away from him. Chiron still had a firm grip on her coat and didn't even seem to notice her struggles.

"I was…dying?" Chiron asked, confusion slowly replacing his fury.

"Yes, don't you remember?" Ritsuko asked, knowing she wasn't out of the woods yet. "You had gone into Kirishima's house to get the Exosuit, and the kid activated the self-destruct."

"Yes," he said distantly, his hold on her loosening. "I remember now."

"Then you understand?" Ritsuko whispered.

"Understand?" Chiron snarled, abruptly snapping back to the present. "_Understand?_ What I understand is that you had _no right_ to do this to me!"

"But you were _dying_!" Ritsuko argued. "The doctors at Medical were ready to call time of death when I showed up!"

"And you think _this_ is better than death?" Chiron demanded. "Damn it, bitch, for someone who's supposed to be so smart, you're a total _idiot!_ I can't _feel_ anything! You think I want to _live_ like this?"

Ritsuko swallowed. She hadn't really thought it, but she supposed that there were many people who would rather die than exist as a humanoid robot, after all. She had just assumed that a person like Chiron would chose any form of life over oblivion.

"Whose bright idea was this?" Chiron demanded in a soft, dangerous voice.

Ritsuko swallowed. Even though she knew that his glowing green optics could never convey emotion the same way that true human eyes could, she still felt quite certain that she saw a spark of madness in them.

"The Commander's," she whispered.

"Then I guess it's time I had a little _talk_ with Ikari, then," Chiron said.

"Wait! You can't just go into Central Dogma looking like that!" Ritsuko exclaimed, indicating Chiron's robotic appearance.

"Try and stop me," he said dismissively, not slowing in his pace.

Ritsuko scrambled to do just that, rushing over to a control panel in the room and pressing a button. The door to the room quickly slid shut right in Chiron's face.

The former Section Two Chief gave it one swift kick, easily knocking it out of the frame. It struck the far wall in the hallway with a terrific crash.

Ritsuko cursed as she watched him leave. After what Chiron had gone through, she didn't want to resort to the kill switch, but allowing him to leave Terminal Dogma was simply not an option.

She hit the button. There was no explosion, no flash of light, but she knew it had worked. She knew because the sound of Chiron's footsteps ceased immediately.

With a sigh, the bottle blonde scientist walked out into the hall, where she found Chiron standing perfectly still. He was alive; ironically, the "kill" switch actually deactivated everything _but_ life support.

She would have to notify the Commander about the whole affair, and then someone would have to move the human-sized but extremely heavy cyborg somewhere.

All in all, this wasn't exactly what she'd hoped for when she'd woken him.

"I knew that Project Metallo was a _bad_ idea," she grumbled to herself.

* * *

"You have _got_ to be kidding me," Asuka said, an incredulous look etched onto her face.

"I'm not," Shinji said firmly. "I swear, I'm not."

_Though, I can completely understand why you think I am,_ he added silently. True or not, Shinji knew his story was pretty incredible.

Asuka squeezed her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose for a good several seconds before she looked at Shinji again. "Okay, let me get this straight," she said, and began pacing around the apartment's living room in a state of obvious agitation. "Last night, you were hanging out on the balcony, and Batgirl shows up."

"Right," Shinji said.

"So she tells you that she can take you to Mana, but she has to knock you unconscious first with some kind of bat-knockout-gas, and being the crazy idiot that you are, you agree," Asuka continued.

Shinji frowned. "It's not like Batgirl would've needed my cooperation if she'd wanted to hurt or kidnap me," he pointed out.

Asuka waved a hand dismissively, as though this point was too unimportant to argue about. "So when you wake up, you're in this cave, and sure enough, Mana's there," she said.

"Yeah," Shinji said.

"And Mana tells you that the Light of the Divine was _not_ the group that attacked her mother. It was some completely different organization that she refused to name," Asuka said.

"Uh-huh," Shinji agreed.

"_Then_ she tells you that she's Steel. In fact, her house exploded because she set off the armor's self-destructive mechanism, which she did to prevent someone from stealing it," Asuka said, gesticulating wildly by this point. "And she's built herself a whole new suit of power armor so she can be Steel some more."

"That's right," Shinji said.

Asuka abruptly ceased her pacing and whirled around to face him. "Do you have _any_ idea just how _crazy_ that story is?" she demanded, causing him to flinch.

It took Shinji a moment to compose himself. "Yes," he said evenly, "but it's true."

The redhead studied him for a long moment with narrowed eyes, and Shinji had to force himself not to cringe beneath her piercing gaze.

"Is that all that happened down there in that cave?" Asuka asked.

"Huh?" Shinji blinked, the question catching him by surprise. "N-no."

The Second Child frowned. "Something seems…different about you," she said. "I can't put my finger on it, though."

"I…don't know what you're talking about," Shinji said.

"Hmm," Asuka hummed, and it was clear that she didn't _quite_ believe him. "Fine, whatever. We need to get to school, and I need to think. So let's just go."

Shinji quickly nodded in agreement and followed Asuka. Their walk to Tokyo-3 Junior High was a silent one, largely because the redhead spent it trying to figure out how exactly she would use this new information.

* * *

Kiyoshi Saito was a true believer in the Light of the Divine.

He truly believed that the Almighty had judged mankind and had found them wanting. He believed that the Angels were His method of rendering Judgment, and that it was the height of arrogance for humanity to try and defy Him.

He believed that NERV needed to be stopped, and that only those individuals who worked toward that goal would find peace in the afterlife. More importantly, he believed that stopping NERV was the _right_ thing to do.

Which was why, even though he hated it, he was helping the Light of the Divine gear up for war.

"God, where did all this stuff come from?" he wondered aloud, looking at the crates and crates full of weapons that he and his fellow faithful were loading into a large warehouse.

"If I had to guess, I'd say that it was all stolen from the military," said Nobu, another member of the Light. "Though honestly, I think it's probably better that we don't know."

Kiyoshi could only nod in agreement with that. Even in a tight knit group such as the Light of the Divine, where everyone shared the same purpose, sometimes it was just better to remain ignorant of certain things. He would just assume that one of their more powerful and influential members had gotten the weapons for them and leave it at that. The Light still had several powerful people in it, despite the way they'd been bleeding members recently, thanks to Steel's meddling.

"What I really want to know," Nobu remarked after Kiyoshi didn't venture a reply to his earlier comment, "is what exactly the High Apostle plans to _use_ all this for."

Kiyoshi shook his head. "If I had to guess, I'd say we're either going to blitzkrieg NERV headquarters, or storm the school and try to take out the pilots," he said.

He felt a little queasy at the thought of the latter possibility. Attacking a school with the intent to murder a group of teenagers was a grisly business, but NERV wasn't giving them a whole lot of choices.

_They never should've used children to fight this war in the first place,_ he thought. _Damn heathens._

"So long as we don't try and fight Steel with this stuff," Nobu said grimly. "These things aren't nearly powerful enough to slow down the metal man."

Kiyoshi laughed. "You're still worried about Steel?" he asked.

"You're not?" Nobu asked.

"Of course not. We haven't seen a trace of his shiny metal ass for weeks now, and we know that he was looking more and more beaten up every time he made an appearance," Kiyoshi said. "That armor of his broke down. Steel's just a boogey man now. The only way he can hurt us is if we let our fear of him make us timid."

Nobu shook his head. "I wish I was as confident about that as you are."

"Trust me, we are never going to have to deal with the metal man again," Kiyoshi said confidently.

These, of course, were the magic words.

The sound of glass shattering filled the warehouse, and both Kiyoshi and Nobu turned to see Steel…but not Steel as they knew him.

No, the Steel they were familiar with was a huge man, with the armor giving the impression of massive muscularity. _This_ Steel, on the other hand, was far shorter, and the armor had a clearly feminine appearance. Yet there were too many similarities between this new intruder and the old Steel for Kiyoshi to think of them as unrelated.

"Hello, boys," Steel said as she landed lightly on the floor in the middle of the warehouse. "Did you miss me?"

For a moment, everyone was dead silent, unable to form any sort of response to this bizarre turn of events.

Then one of the members of the Light released a loud battle cry and went charging toward Steel, brandishing a crowbar he'd been using to open up the wooden crates.

Steel turned, and though it seemed to Kiyoshi that she had ample time to react to her attack, she just stood there while the man came. He swung his improvised weapon, striking Steel right on her helmet.

A loud clang echoed through the warehouse.

Steel didn't fall, didn't stagger. Didn't even _flinch,_ so far as any of the cultists could see. No, instead she simply _looked_ at the man who had hit her, the face molded onto her metallic helmet perfectly impassive. The cultist who had hit her visibly wilted beneath the force of that gaze, slowly lowering his crowbar.

Then Steel backhanded him. The man released a cry of pain and surprise as he went flying through the air, coming to a painful landing several yards away from where he'd been standing.

It was like Steel had waved the green flag.

Almost simultaneously, the members of the Light moved to attack. The first few followed the example of their ill-fated companion, rushing at Steel with improvised melee weapons or even bare fists. The metal maiden sent these men careening through the air with a few casually delivered blows.

Most of the cultists, however, were far smarter than to launch such a futile attack, especially when they had crates and crates of weapons all around them. They quickly raided the boxes, removing machine guns and clips of ammunition. Most of the members of the Light weren't soldiers, and they were slow and clumsy to load the weapons. However, they all eventually figured it out.

The noise of so many automatic weapons firing inside the warehouse was deafening. Even so, the sound of the slugs bouncing off Steel's armor could just be heard. The girl the metal suit stood, rooted in place, weathering the assault as though the hail of bullets was no more irritating than a spring rain shower.

Which was not to say that Steel was content to simply allow them all to shoot her. The armored girl's arm came up, and the rivet gun on her arm spat out several bolts of metal. With unerring accuracy, the rivets struck the guns that the members of the Light held, knocking the weapons from their hands. Kiyoshi couldn't help but utter a loud, high-pitched shriek as his own gun was pulled from his grip.

Moments later, Steel was able to disarm the last of the faithful. Silence rang in the warehouse as the cultists stared silently at the girl in the metal suit, their worst nightmare come back.

"Die, bitch!"

The scream came from a member of the Light that Kiyoshi recognized as Masa. The man was holding a weapon that was _far_ more massive than the machine guns that the other cultists had tried to use.

_A Toastmaster!_ Kiyoshi thought, feeling hope flare up within him. He didn't even bother to wonder where Masa had gotten the weapon from.

Masa fired, causing the oversized gun in his hands to discharge a burst of fiery orange light.

Steel reacted by grabbing one of the hammers that had been attached to her back and holding it forward. Kiyoshi felt certain that the head of the massive hammer would soon be reduced to molten slag, but somehow, that didn't happen. Instead, the thing took absolutely no visible damage whatsoever. Indeed, it almost seemed to _absorb_ the energy that was thrown at it.

Eventually, Masa was forced to stop firing, lest he overheat the Toastmaster and melt the barrel of the weapon. The minute she didn't have to defend herself any longer, Steel fired her rivet cannon again, piercing Masa's Toastmaster with several bolts of metal.

In response, Masa gave his ruined firearm a stunned look, then dropped it to the floor.

"The _hell_ with this," he said, then turned and ran for the door.

Steel didn't bother to pursue him. Instead, she pointed her hammer toward a particularly large stack of crates, and to Kiyoshi's shock, the thing somehow managed to disgorge the fiery light it had taken from the Toastmaster's assault. The boxes and boxes of weapons and ammunition practically _exploded_ as the energy hit them, with wood splinters and bits of metal shrapnel flying everywhere. Mercifully, all the faithful were too far away from the thing to take any serious harm.

It was, however, enough to send the cultists running. With cries and screams of terror, the cultists all began running for the exits.

All but Kiyoshi. He stood his ground, though he was held in place by paralyzing fear rather than anything that resembled courage.

Steel took no notice of him at first. Instead, she fired several shots from one of her rivet guns, the one on the left arm now. The shoots struck another one of the crates full of weapons.

To Kiyoshi's shock, those crates exploded almost as violently as the ones that Steel had turned the Toastmaster energy on. His surprise was enough to force a small cry out of him, and now Steel turned her cold gaze upon him.

For the rest of his life, Kiyoshi would only be able to wonder just how his bladder had held.

"I would get put of here now if I were you," Steel told him.

Kiyoshi finally regained the ability to move. The cultist turned and ran for the door, never once looking back.

* * *

Consciousness returned instantly for Chiron. One moment, he'd been completely out, and the next, he was totally awake.

Such an abrupt return to awareness was unnatural, and it took Chiron completely by surprise. For several seconds, he was too stunned to register his surroundings.

Then he realized that he was inside Gendo Ikari's office, situated before the man's desk, a place where he had stood countless times before. The Commander himself was there, though he wasn't looking at Chiron. Instead, he was working at his computer, probably going over some of the minutia which was necessary for the day-to-day functioning of NERV.

"Ikari!" Chiron snarled as his mind finally caught up.

He tried to run toward the man, tried to grab him by the throat and crush his neck, tried to kill him.

But he couldn't. His body refused to so much budge. He was completely paralyzed from the neck down.

"I see you're awake," Ikari commented in a perfectly casual tone, as though this happened every day.

"Go to hell, you bastard!" Chiron yelled.

Ikari finally deigned to take his eyes off the computer monitor and face the frozen cyborg. "Honestly, Captain, all this drama and theatrics aren't like you," he chided mildly.

The Commander's demeanor infuriated Chiron almost as much as the man's actual words did. "Theatrics! You transplanted my _brain_ into the body of a _robot_!" he roared. "I can't feel a damn thing inside this tin can! You had no right to do this to me!"

"No right?" Gendo asked as he rose from his chair and began to slowly stride toward Chiron. "Perhaps not."

"Perhaps not?" Chiron echoed incredulously. "I _know_ I sure as hell never signed a piece of paper saying NERV could do this to me!"

The corners of Ikari's lips turned up with dark amusement. "Well, I suppose I can't say you're wrong there."

"So why did you do it?" Chiron hissed. "Why did you think this was okay?"

The Commander didn't answer immediately. Instead, he walked a slow circle around Chiron, appraising his new metal body.

"I thought that it was okay," he began, "because I know that you love your work."

"What?" Chiron asked incredulously. "What the hell are you talking about, Ikari?"

"I know how much you love what you do," Gendo reiterated. "I knew how badly the prospect of losing the opportunity to work for NERV affected you."

"So?" Chiron demanded, still not seeing the logic.

"You don't need to feel to break a man's fingers," Gendo pointed out. "So what if you can't smell a rose, so long as you can still rough up some fool who crossed NERV? I thought that you'd prefer to stay among the living and continue your work, rather than go quietly into the night."

"You thought wrong," Chiron spat.

"Did I?" Gendo asked, clearly not convinced.

"Yes, you pompous jackass!" Chiron shouted. "You know what doing a mission would be like in this metal body? Without my heart pounding, my pulse racing, my palms sweating?"

"What?" Gendo asked.

_"It would be like __**work!**_" Chiron roared.

Ikari actually flinched, ever so slightly, at the outburst. The metal man took an enormous amount of satisfaction at the sight.

"I don't expect a pencil-necked geek like you to understand this," Chiron growled, "but I enjoy the physical aspect of life, and that goes for my job, too. I can't live in a body that doesn't feel anything."

"Well then, we have a problem," Gendo said.

"What do you mean?" Chiron asked.

"NERV expended a great deal of resources on you, Metallo," he said.

"_Don't_ call me that!" he snapped. "And I don't give a damn how much money you spent making me into the damn Tin Man. Turn me off."

"I can't do that," Ikari said, heading back to his desk. "You have become too important to the Scenario."

"Your Scenario can go to hell for all I care," Chiron said. "You've wasted your precious resources, because even if you keep me alive, I'm not doing your dirty work anymore."

Gendo was silent for a long moment, appraising Chiron.

"You're not going to be allowed to die," he said matter-of-factly. "And you're not going to ever experience anything resembling physical sensation again, unless…"

"Unless?" Chiron prompted. He knew that he was grasping at straws, and he knew that was probably what Ikari wanted. However, he was unable to stop himself.

"I'm going to tell you something that very few people know," Gendo said. "The true goal of the Scenario, and the Human Instrumentality Project."

He described the plan for a controlled Third Impact, using Adam and Lilith, all guided by the nephilim Rei Ayanami.

"Why are you telling me all this?" Chiron asked, so stunned by what he'd learned that he'd forgotten to be angry.

"Partly because Dr. Akagi has hard coded your brain so that you're incapable of telling anyone NERV secrets," Gendo answered bluntly.

"What?" Chiron asked.

"But mostly to show you that my goal is now your goal," Gendo continued, ignoring the question. "Instrumentality is your only chance of escaping this state of living death."

"Because you won't let me die," Chiron said.

"Yes," Gendo answered bluntly.

_At least he's honest about it,_ the cyborg thought.

"Fine," Chiron sighed. "Let's get started."

* * *

_Poor Mana,_ Supergirl thought later as she flew through the night sky, _she must be so scared._

Honestly, the original Girl of Steel could only _imagine_ how her friend was feeling at the moment. Unlike herself, Mana had been raised as a more or less normal girl, not as an elite pilot with a responsibility to defend the world from giant monsters, and Mana had no special powers to defend herself with.

So if Shinji's wild story was true (and he had certainly seemed completely sincere; even her superhuman senses hadn't been able to pick up the faintest sign that he was being dishonest with her), that meant Mana was utterly dependant upon Batgirl for her very survival. Her friend would have no choice but to do whatever the dark lady ordered, regardless of…anything.

_At the mercy of that psycho…_

Supergirl shuddered at the very thought.

_And speaking of her...where __**is**__ she?_ The half-Kryptonian wondered.

She had been searching for the so-called caped crusader for some time now, but so far, she hadn't been able to find a trace of the girl, even with her superhuman hearing and vision.

More obnoxiously, she hadn't been able to find a trace of the _giant cave_ that Shinji had described Batgirl as having. How the hell the dark lady could possibly hide _that_ from her was a mystery that boggled Supergirl's mind.

_I guess I'm not going to find her tonight,_ the original Girl of Steel thought with a small sigh of defeat. If she didn't get back to the apartment soon, Misato would ask questions that she'd have a very hard time answering. Also, using her superhuman senses to observe the whole city at once was a very grating experience, and she'd rather limit it to short periods.

Batgirl couldn't hide from her forever, not unless she completely holed up inside that cave of hers, and Supergirl had a feeling that the dark lady wouldn't—

_"It's the Bat!"_

Supergirl's eyes widened as she picked that single cry out from the buzz of noise in Tokyo-3. Her gaze immediately snapped toward the source of the sound, and she used her super vision to "zoom in" on the scene.

Batgirl stood on a rooftop, confronting half a dozen men, two of whom were holding suitcases. A quick look with her X-ray vision revealed that one case was filled with several packets of white power, while the other one contained several million yen in unmarked bills. The dark lady had interrupted a drug deal.

Not wanting to lose her chance, Supergirl flew toward the rooftop at a high speed. Even so, Batgirl had still managed to incapacitate five of the six men present before she got there. The final man had managed to draw a pistol and point it at the dark lady before she could reach him.

"A-All right!" the man stammered, his hand visibly shaking. "D-Don't move, or I'll—"

He never got a chance to finish; Supergirl swooped in, easily knocking him unconscious with one blow. The man crumpled limply to the ground without uttering so much as a sound.

The half-Kryptonian then turned to Batgirl, expecting the dark lady to react to her sudden appearance with surprise and confusion. Instead, Batgirl wordlessly withdrew several pairs of handcuffs from her belt and began to slap them onto the criminals, acting as though Supergirl popping up wasn't the slightest bit unusual. She didn't even acknowledge the original Girl of Steel's presence.

Supergirl scowled. If there was one thing she hated, it was being ignored.

"Ahem," she cleared her throat loudly. "You're welcome."

"I had it under control," Batgirl replied curtly, not stopping in her work for so much as a moment.

"Really, I didn't know that you were bullet-proof, too," Supergirl commented sarcastically, her scowl deepening.

"I'm not, but the suit is," Batgirl replied.

The half-Kryptonian didn't see how such obviously thin material could possibly repel even low caliber bullets, but she kept her skepticism to herself. There definitely did seem to be something strange about Batgirl's costume, at least. Despite her best efforts, Supergirl couldn't see through the dark lady's cowl with her X-ray vision.

"Look," Supergirl said, crossing her arms over her chest, "let's cut to the chase here. Are you keeping someone named Mana Kirishima at your place?"

"Yes," Batgirl answered.

"Well, that stops now," Supergirl declared imperiously. "You're going to let her go."

"She's agreed to work for me," Batgirl said.

"Oh, and I'm sure she wasn't under _any_ sort of duress at that time," Supergirl said, rolling her eyes. "Let her go."

"And what if I refuse to cooperate?" Batgirl asked. To Supergirl's shock, the dark lady actually sounded amused.

"Then I _force_ you to cooperate," Supergirl growled, uncrossing her arms and balling her hands into fists.

Batgirl appraised her silently for a long moment, and though the half-Kryptonian couldn't still see through the dark lady's cowl, she had a very strong suspicion that Batgirl was smirking. Or possibly sneering.

"All right, say you're able to make me release Kirishima from her agreement with me," Batgirl began.

Supergirl pretty much felt it was given that she'd be able to force the dark lady to cooperate, but she managed to keep silent while Batgirl continued.

"Once she leaves the safety of my home, what's next for her?" the caped crusader asked.

"What do you mean?" Supergirl demanded. "Once she's free from you, she can go on with her life."

"No, she can't," Batgirl said flatly. "There are some very powerful people out to get her. She would be in danger if she went out into the open."

Supergirl's eyes narrowed. She was skeptical about the claim of nameless powerful people being out to get Mana, but if Batgirl was being dishonest, she was a damn good liar. The half-Kryptonian had been carefully listening to the dark lady's heartbeat, and it hadn't sped up at all.

"I would protect her," Supergirl said.

"Really? You would stay with her every second, to make sure that no one gets her?" Batgirl demanded. "And what would you do about her other needs? Can you offer her a place to live? Basic necessities like food and clothing? The resources she needs to maintain her power armor, so she can defeat her enemies and live a normal life again someday?"

Supergirl hesitated, Batgirl's argument having thrown her for a loop. She wasn't used to being unable to do something, and that unpleasant situation had only become more foreign to her once her powers had started blooming. However it seemed that, for all her abilities, she didn't have the power to truly help Mana.

"I thought so," Batgirl said, as though reading her mind. "For now, Kirishima will remain with me. It's better for everyone, including her."

"Fine," Supergirl spat, not remotely pleased by how things had turned out. "But you listen to me, Bats, if something happens to her, or if I find out that you're abusing her in any way, I will come after you so fast and hard that you'll wish you had never _heard_ the name Kirishima. Do you understand me?"

"Perfectly," Batgirl answered, though she sounded infuriatingly unconcerned by the threat.

"Good," Supergirl said.

Without another word, she turned, heading for the edge of the building. She figured that Batgirl could worry about the unconscious criminals that were scattered all over the roof.

She was just about to take off when the dark lady spoke again.

"Auf wierdersehen."

Supergirl's eyes widened, and she whirled around, searching for Batgirl. However, the dark lady seemed to have completely vanished.

* * *

If someone had told Mana a year ago about how she would soon be an enemy of NERV and forced to enter into an alliance with Batgirl for her very survival…she probably would've said they were crazy.

If, however, she had believed the whole story for some reason, she certainly wouldn't have worried about how she'd deal with the _boredom_. Yet with the new armor completed that was exactly her problem.

She had done all the maintenance and testing on the new Exosuit that she realistically could; anything else would be pointless and wasteful.

She still had to build the new equipment she'd promised her employer, but Motomu hadn't managed to obtain the necessary components yet. Until he did, all that stuff was firmly stuck in the blueprints phase.

She had already spent quite a bit of time in both the gym and the pool that day. Mana expected to be in extremely good shape (though nowhere near Mayumi's level of fitness) by the time her "contract" with Batgirl was concluded, but she had worn herself out too much for more exercise.

Going out and being Steel also wasn't a real option. Most of the Light of the Divine had gone into hiding for the moment.

Also, there was somehow no television inside the huge mansion that Mana could find, and every book in Yamagishi Manor was intensely dry nonfiction.

_So really, Mayumi has no one but herself to blame for me doing this,_ Mana thought, sitting in front of the main computer terminal in the Batcave and trying to hack into her employer's private files. _Idle hands, devil's playthings, and blah blah blah._

Of course, boredom by itself wouldn't have caused her to start trying to discover the caped crusader's secrets (or at least, she liked to think so).

No, she wanted to know more about Mayumi.

Her current employer had given her a very good deal when they'd been negotiating terms, especially considering that Mana had had virtually no bargaining power in that situation. Yet that didn't mean Mana was going to blindly trust Mayumi.

_After all, a person has to be at __**least**__ a little crazy to dress up like a bat and fight crime,_ she thought.

More importantly, Mayumi had kept her reasons for being Batgirl and investigating NERV a complete secret. Considering that one of her best friends and her boyfriend both worked for NERV, that was a concern to her.

_My boyfriend,_ she thought with a small sigh.

It was nice to think that she'd have someone waiting for her when she (hopefully) emerged from all the insanity. Kissing Shinji had also been really nice, too, she mused with a small blush.

_It's just too bad I have no idea when I'll even be able to __**see**__ him again,_ she thought, her mood turning dour.

With another sigh, Mana forcibly pulled herself back to the present and turned her attention to the computer once more. She typed in a quick string of commands, and then pressed the enter key.

**Access Denied**

_Well, turns out that the 104__th__ time __**wasn't**__ the charm after all,_ she thought disgustedly.

She would get in, though. Now that she was actually working with the ORACLE computer itself, it was just a matter of time so far as she was concerned.

* * *

There was a part of Chiron, a large part, that couldn't believe this.

Oh, he understood all of it. He understood that Ikari had trapped him in a metal purgatory, and that he had to work with the man if he wanted to have a prayer of escaping it. He understood that.

Yet, after what the Commander had done to him, he still had trouble wrapping his mind around the fact that he was standing in Ikari's office and being briefed for a mission, as though everything was perfectly normal.

"As you might expect," the Commander began, "I have several uses for a…man of your abilities."

Chiron set his metallic jaw, resisting the urge to lunge at the Commander. Even though he could move again, he knew it wouldn't do him any good; Akagi had apparently hardwired _several_ commands into his brain, and a directive to not harm NERV personnel without explicit orders from Ikari was one of them.

"However, there is one that takes priority over all the others," Gendo continued. "The advanced robotics technology developed by Hazumi Kirishima. With the rest of her secrets, NERV could substantially upgrade our Evangelions' armor."

"So you want me to get the little bitch who did this to me?" he asked, secretly relishing the prospect. Revenge was perhaps the only potential pleasure he had left.

"Yes," Gendo said. "Of course, she must be brought in _alive_."

"Of course, sir," Chiron agreed at once. He would've smirked if he'd had lips.

"Good," Gendo said. "Now, unfortunately, Kirishima went to ground for a long period of time with Batgirl's assistance. She has only recently resurfaced, with a new set of powered armor. It appears to be far superior to the original Exosuit."

"I can take her," Chiron said, balling his hand up into a metallic fist.

"First you need to find her," Gendo pointed out. "Kirishima has continued her campaign against the Light of the Divine for some reason, but staking out any one location controlled by the cult is unlikely to result in success. Therefore, you must make her come to you."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Chiron asked.

"You're going to kidnap one of the people she cares about," Gendo said. "The Section Two agents assigned to protect the Children at school have been able to inform us which students Kirishima considers friends."

Gendo pushed a button on his desk, and three school ID photos appeared on a screen that was embedded in the far wall. "As you might expect, you are prohibited from using the Evangelion pilots as your bait," the Commander added.

"I guess _that_ makes the choice easy, then," Chiron remarked. "So, where does this Hikari Horaki live?"

* * *

**Author's Notes:** And so Mana finally gets back into the game as Steel, but Chiron isn't too far behind her.

Metallo always struck me as a very natural enemy for Steel. It's actually really hard to write a good Superman (or Supergirl, in this case) vs. Metallo story; Steel vs. Metallo is much easier to do well.

Somehow Chiron wound up with a large dash of Cyborg Superman's desire to die in there, too. I was originally planning on rewriting the relevant scenes to get rid of that, but I decided that it worked.

Anyway, thanks as always to all my all my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Eight: **The Meeting of the Metals

Hikari Horaki had had a very tiresome day.

Several of the students in Class 2-A had been particularly troublesome from the starting bell to dismissal. She had tried her best to keep things in class under control, of course, but the fact of the matter was that, as class representative, she didn't actually have very much in the way of real authority. Most of the time, she could get Sensei to back her up, at least to some extent, but it was like he'd arrived at school that morning determined to completely ignore to every disruption.

Her day hadn't ended when classes had finished, either. She'd had cleaning duty that day, of course, which had meant a set of unwanted extra chores. That was finally done with, but now…

"And them Kimi said that Zoids were better, but I told her that Gundams are way, _way_ cooler!" Nozomi said. "And she was all like 'No they're not!' and I said…"

Her younger sister just would not…shut…_up_.

Of course, Hikari loved her little sister. She truly did, but like most children her age, Nozomi could often be hyperactive. Normally, the middle Horaki sister could easily tolerate the younger girl's excited ramblings and tendency to bounce off the walls.

That afternoon, it was grating on her last nerve.

"_Nozomi_," she finally spoke up, then winced. She hadn't meant to sound quite so harsh.

However, if the younger girl was stung by the sharpness of her tone, she didn't show it. "Yes, sister?" she asked in the perfectly innocent voice of someone who didn't _ever_ think she might be just the tiniest bit annoying.

"I've had a very long day," Hikari said. "Do you think that maybe you could tell me about Kumi later?"

Nozomi blinked. "But why?"

Hikari resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Her little sister really wasn't going to make this easy for her. "Well…" she began, trying to figure out the gentlest way to phrase the sentiment she wanted to convey.

Before she could get any further, Hikari spied a man approaching them, and she trailed off. The guy's attire alone set off a few alarm bells in her head. He was wearing a heavy trench coat, making him absurdly overdressed for the typically sweltering day. The collar on the coat was up, and along with the porkpie hat he had on, it almost entirely concealed his face in shadows.

Plus, there was something _wrong_ with the way he moved. Hikari couldn't put her finger on it, whatever it was, but it made the hair on the back of her neck stand up all the same.

Hikari reflexively put a protective hand on Nozomi's shoulder, even as she cast a furtive look around. They were in a good neighborhood but off the main streets; besides the two of them and the creepy man in the trenchcoat, Hikari didn't see anyone else around.

"What's wrong, sister?" Nozomi asked softly. The strange individual hadn't gotten the younger girl's hackles up, but she could sense her sister's unease well enough.

"Shh," Hikari whispered, hoping against hope that they didn't catch the man's attention.

_Just keeping walking. Ignore the two young girls. We're not even a little bit interesting,_ she thought at the guy, as though she could will away the chance of an incident. _Just pass us by and go on with your life. Make trouble for someone else._

"Excuse me," the man addressed them in a low, deep voice.

Hikari barely managed to resist the urge to swear. "Yes? What can I do for you, sir?" she asked as politely as possible, hoping that her instincts were wrong and he just wanted to know where he could find the nearest ramen place or something.

"Is your name Hikari Horaki?" he asked.

Oh, _damn._

"N-No," she stammered out, then forced a laugh. "My name's Kimi. Kimi…Soryu. Yes, Kimi Soryu."

The man tilted his head forward. "You're lying," he said, sounding darkly amused.

"No, I'm not," Hikari insisted, trying to judge where she and Nozomi should run to. She'd already decided to make a break for it. "I swear, I've never even heard of…"

A stray gust of summer wind chose that moment to blow by, taking the man's hat from his head and revealing his face to the two girls at last. Hikari gasped at the sight, her eyes bugging out, while Nozomi let out a little yelp of surprise.

The man wasn't really a man at all. He was a robot, his head made entirely of metal. His face instantly made Hikari think of a skull. One mechanical hand emerged from the pocket of his coat and, with a burst of motion far quicker than any mere human was capable of, he grabbed the front of Hikari's school uniform in a tight grip and lifted her up into the air.

"Hey! Lemme go!" the pig-tailed girl yelled as she struggled fiercely but fruitlessly, her legs kicking in the air.

"You put my sister down!" Nozomi barked, beating at his side with her small fists. The younger girl's efforts produced a series of metallic thumps, which were partially muffled by the fabric of the trench coat, and absolutely no reaction from the mechanical man.

"No! Nozomi, run!" Hikari yelled frantically. "Call Dad! Call the police! Just _go_!"

The youngest Horaki sister, however, refused to leave Hikari in such a dire position. She kept beating the metal man, who regarded her silently, seemingly sizing up the situation with perfect calmness and serenity.

Finally, he reached out with his free hand and grabbed Nozomi as well, lifting her up just as effortlessly as he had Hikari. "I only need the big one," he told the younger sister. "But I guess a little extra never hurt."

With that, he threw them both over his shoulders like they were a couple of sacks of rice and started to race down the street. A moment later, he'd turned onto one of busier roads. Several people stopped to gawk at the robot carrying the two young girls, shouting and pointing. However, Hikari knew now that the presence of random bystanders wouldn't do much to help them, not from this bizarre abductor. In fact, she could hear the metal man chuckling as people reacted to him, as though he was pleased by the attention.

Then the robot leaped, and the two girls screamed as he sailed an impossibly high distance into the air, finally landing upon a window ledge of one of the city's many tall buildings. Two more leaps brought him to the top of one of Tokyo-3's skyscrapers, and Hikari's head began to spin, thanks mostly to her own terror.

"Don't worry, girls," the machine man told them, even as he leapt to the top of an even taller building. Hikari made the mistake of looking down, then instantly closed her eyes. The view of the street from so many stories up was vertigo inducing. "You're just the bait. There's actually a very slim chance you'll survive this."

Hikari swallowed and silently decided that, prior to her encounter with this robot, her day really hadn't been going all _that_ badly at all.

* * *

Supergirl was not in the best of moods.

First, her good friend's house had exploded, and she'd subsequently disappeared. Then Mana had reached out not her but to Shinji. The Third Child had returned bearing a wild story of their friend having found dubious sanctuary with Batgirl (of all people), being the mysterious hero Steel, and fighting with powerful and shadowy organizations.

Then, when she'd finally managed to find and confront Batgirl, expecting to force the dark lady to release her friend, things had not gone at all as she'd expected. The caped crusader had somehow convinced her to leave the status quo unchanged, and even worse, she had apparently known her secret identity. Supergirl still couldn't figure out how Batgirl could have possibly figured that out when she, with all her superhuman senses, couldn't even find the dark lady's supposedly enormous hideout.

To top it all off, her friend Hikari had gotten stuck with cleaning duty at school that afternoon, meaning they couldn't hang out together. The Kryptonian had decided to go on a patrol of the city instead, but so far, Tokyo-3 was almost freakishly quiet.

_It's like there's not a single disaster or violent crime happening anywhere,_ she thought as she flew over the city. She felt guilty at how annoyed she was about that, but only a little. _It's like someone up there hates me lately._

Coming to a halt in the air, she forced herself to take a deep, calming breath. Though Tokyo-3's population density was far below the norm for urban areas in Japan, it was still a major city. The population numbered in the hundreds of thousands; there was always someone in trouble. All she had to do was find them.

"I hate doing this," she grumbled, her eyes sliding shut.

Supergirl listened. When she truly tried to, she could hear every single sound in the entire city. It was extremely unpleasant; even the half-Kryptonian's brain had trouble coping with such a massive amount of information, but it was the quickest way to find anyone who needed help.

For once, picking out a relevant voice from the nearly overwhelming sea of noise proved to be simplicity in itself.

Mostly because it was impossible not to notice the terrified, high-pitched shriek that rang through the air.

Supergirl immediately went back to tuning out most of the sounds around her, her head snapping in the direction she'd heard the scream coming from. She focused, and her eyes zoomed in, the buildings which blocked her line of sight becoming transparent to her.

"Mein Gott," she breathed. "Hikari!"

She didn't know how and she didn't know why, but her best friend and her friend's little sister Nozomi were caught in the grip of some kind of _robot_. Holding onto both by the backs of their school uniforms, the mechanical man was leaping through the air, reaching incredible heights. The two Horaki sisters were understandably screaming in terror as they sailed through the sky.

Supergirl's hands balled into fists as she watched the robot finally coming to a halt atop a particularly tall skyscraper. She'd already allowed disaster to strike one of her friends; she'd be damned if she let it happen to another.

"Don't worry, Hikari," she said as she took off. "I'm coming."

* * *

"You know, Motomu, I was a big fan of Tokyo-3's superwomen before I ever even came here," Mana commented.

"Yes, you had told me as much," the butler replied.

"I'd definitely be lying if I said I never imagined what it would be like to actually be one," the auburn haired girl continued, "and I have to admit, this is _not_ how I envisioned it."

The teenage gearhead and the butler were currently down in the Batcave, working on some of the many upgrades that Mana had planned for Mayumi's equipment. The lady of the house was out that afternoon, having gone straight from school to some Yamagishi Enterprises function she couldn't dodge. As she'd be stuck there for most of the evening, it gave Mana an excellent chance to work on the Batsuit.

Of course, she'd enlisted Motomu's help for this endeavor, though it was more because she wanted someone to talk to rather than out of an actual need for assistance. The perpetually patient butler, fortunately, didn't seem to mind.

"And just how did you picture it, Kirishima-san?" he asked.

"Well, in my mind, it definitely involved a whole lot less toiling away in a dark cave," Mana answered, even as she continued to work on the Batsuit.

"And for the likes of Supergirl and Wonder Girl, I'm sure it does," Motomu said. "But you found yourself attached to Mayumi-san." He added with a playful twinkle in his eye.

Mana smirked. It hadn't taken her long to notice the subtle jabs that Mayumi and her butler frequently took at one another, with the both of them wearing a completely straight face the whole time. She had to admit that watching them was one of the more amusing parts of her stay at Yamagishi Manor.

Though then again, watching the verbal sparring matches often made her wonder what kind of person Motomu was, to allow Mayumi to do something so incredibly dangerous as to be Batgirl. It was obvious that he didn't wholeheartedly approve, and yet he went along with it, usually with nothing more than some token grumbling or words of caution.

It was a rather disturbing situation when she thought about it. So, as she was stuck living in Yamagishi Manor for the foreseeable future and could do nothing about it, she tried her best not to think about it.

"There," Mana said eventually, "finally done with this."

"How do you intend to test the new modifications?" Motomu asked.

Mana shrugged. "There's pretty much only one way," she said. "Do you think Mayumi would mind if I wore her Batsuit for a bit?"

"So long as it's in the interest of science, I'm sure Mayumi-san will be fine with it," Motomu said. "She has a small changing room over there." He added, pointing.

"Thank you," Mana said.

Entering the little room, she quickly shed her own clothes and started to don the Batsuit. She soon found herself surprised with the nature of the black material; it clung her to her tightly, yet it was elastic enough that it would never impede her movements. Mana couldn't imagine venturing out of the house in the thing, let alone fighting crime in it.

_Of course, if I was as insanely fit as Mayumi, maybe I wouldn't have a problem with it,_ Mana thought. _Though, then again, she __**does**__ usually only go out in this when it's dark…_

Shaking her head, Mana finished pulling the costume on, though she opted to forgo the cowl. Stepping out of Mayumi's little changing room, she discovered that she'd apparently taken longer than she'd thought. Motomu was watching television on the Batcomputer's main screen. He had his feet propped up on the control panel, looking like quite the lay about.

"Ready, Mana-san?" he asked her as he put his feet down. He didn't look the least bit abashed, nor did he turn off the news program he was watching.

"Yes," the auburn-haired girl replied, politely ignoring the fact that the butler had gotten a fire extinguisher and placed it within arm's reach of himself.

Taking a few steps away from everything else in the room, Mana donned a pair of A-10 connector clips and gave the suit a mental command. Immediately, the jets she'd installed into the bottom of the boots ignited, lifting her off the floor. For a brief moment, the young prodigy found herself gripped by terror; she had grown used to flying by now, but doing it without the heavy armor felt very different. It seemed like the slightest miscalculation on her part could send her careening out of control.

However, it didn't take long for her to gain confidence, and Mana was soon flying around the cave, finding it even easier to control her flight than she'd hoped.

"Oh, yeah," the auburn-haired girl said as she landed. "She can fly."

"Very nice, Mana-san," Motomu said offering her a small smile. "I'm sure Mayumi will appreciate the upgrade."

"Thank you, Motomu," she replied.

"I'm not sure how she'll feel about wearing those hair clips, however," he added.

"Oh, I already put A-10 connectors into the ears of her cowl," Mana said.

She went back into the changing room and removed the Batsuit, requiring far less time to take it off than she had to put it on. Emerging in her regular clothes, the auburn-haired girl headed for the door that led to the rest of the manor, feeling that she deserved a break after her recent success. Just before she left, however, the volume of Motomu's news program abruptly increased.

"Breaking news," the anchorman announced. "We have just learned that two young girls are being held hostage in downtown Tokyo-3. Our Channel 3 News Chopper is heading to the scene, and…yes," he touched his ear as he received new information, "we have video."

The picture shifted, displaying a rooftop with the word "LIVE" in the corner. The camera was shaking a bit, and for a moment, Mana had no idea what the audience was supposed to be seeing.

Then the camera zoomed in, and she gasped in horror.

Hikari was one of the hostages. The other was a younger girl that Mana didn't recognize, but the resemblance between her and the class rep was unmistakable. They were probably sisters.

"Is this…?" the anchorman's voice asked. "Yes…yes, I'm being told that this is really happening right now, ladies and gentlemen. Impossible though it might seem." He added.

Mana understood the newsman's disbelief, even though she felt only dread at the picture on the screen; the man holding Hikari and her (presumed) sister hostage wasn't a man at all. He was a robot.

Even with the shaky, low-quality image the news company had managed to get on the spot, the gearhead could still pick out characteristics of the Exosuit in the robot's construction. She thought she could see similarities to the Evangelions in it, too, though she was less certain about that.

_NERV,_ she thought, realizing who had to be behind this, her hands clenching into fists. _They must've gotten some HHI secrets out of Mom and used them to build that thing!_

"Help me get into my armor, Motomu," Mana said, heading over to the box frame where her new Exosuit rested.

"You intend to try and rescue those two girls?" Motomu asked.

"Of course," Mana answered, already climbing into the armor's lower half. "The older one is my friend Hikari."

"Then perhaps we should notify Mayumi-san before you take action?" Motomu suggested.

"Why would we do that?" Mana asked, reaching for the controls that would lower the top half of the armor onto her, since the butler wasn't moving to assist her. "Mayumi's stuck in some business meeting right now. In Tokyo-2. It'll take her hours to get back, and by then, Hikari could be dead."

"Perhaps, but the fact that you know this girl strongly suggests this is a trap," Motomu pointed out. "So it might be wise to gain Mayumi-san's input before you proceed."

Mana blinked. She'd been so worried for Hikari that the whole situation likely being a trap had escaped her. Now that the butler had pointed it out, however, it seemed painfully obvious.

_And I'm supposed to be a prodigy,_ the auburn-haired girl thought, feeling embarrassed.

Regardless, her decision remained the same.

"Call Mayumi if you want," she said, finally reaching the controls of the motorized winch. The upper portion of the armor began to descend onto her. "But I'm not leaving my friend at the mercy of that…thing a second longer than I have to."

Mana felt the two halves of the Exosuit connecting as the systems started coming to life around her. Fully clad in the armor of Steel, she headed for the exit that lead outside.

* * *

The air at seventy stories high was extremely chilly, and though it might've just been Hikari's imagination, she swore it was also noticeably thinner at this elevation.

Their metallic captor had simply released them once he'd reached their destination, not even bothering to keep an eye on them and instead scanning the sky expectantly. Hikari had thought that she and Nozomi might be able to escape until she'd observed her surroundings and realized that there was no place to go unless they were interesting in plummeting to the street below. There was no door that led from the roof to the inside of the building.

_This sort of thing isn't supposed to happen to me,_ was all Hikari could think as a cold wind blew harshly upon her.

No, her life was all about keeping both the Horaki household and Class 2-A functioning normally. It wasn't glamorous, nor was it very exciting, but it was her role and it was a useful one.

Let Shinji, Asuka, and Rei deal with piloting Evangelion and fighting the Angels. Let the city's superwomen handle the other monsters and criminals that might pop up. Hikari was content to work at making sure dinner made it to the table on time at home.

She was the normal girl, the one in the background, and while she was sometimes envious of those who got to soak up the spotlight, she had never desired to deal with the danger they did. She hung out with important people, in the form of the Evangelion pilots, but she wasn't anyone important herself.

So why was this happening to _her_?

_Get a grip,_ she chided herself sternly, even as she did her best not to look over the edge of the building. _You have to be strong for Nozomi. After all, if you're this scared, she must be completely terrified!_

"You're crazy, you know that?" the youngest Horaki sister demanded of the mechanical man.

_Or not,_ Hikari thought, a large drop of sweat forming on the back of her head.

"What?" the mechanical man asked, turning to look at the little girl.

"With the big commotion you made, everybody in Tokyo-3 probably knows what you did by now!" Nozomi exclaimed, shaking her small fist at the machine man. "And this city's loaded with superwomen! I'll bet one of them is headed here right now to kick your shiny metal butt!"

The robot chuckled. "And who says I'd consider that a bad thing?" he asked.

"What? Do you actually think you can take 'em?" Nozomi demanded incredulously. "Are you really that dumb?"

He nodded silently.

"Nozomi, shut up," Hikari hissed at her sister.

Unfortunately, it was already too late. A snicker escaped the little girl, despite her best effort to stifle it, and soon transformed into full blown laughter.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she said between giggles, even though she didn't sound the least bit contrite. "But you really think you can take the superwomen! That's _hilarious_! You're—!"

Nozomi screamed as the mechanical man closed the distance between her and himself in the blink of an eye, grabbing hold of the front of her school uniform and lifting her up off the ground. A second later, he was dangling her over the side of the building.

"Nozomi!" Hikari cried.

"Listen to me," the robot said to the girl, his tone dangerous. "I do not need you. You are extra. You are expendable. So if you do not shut the hell up, I will not hesitate to drop you. Understand?"

Nozomi nodded rapidly, her freckles standing out in stark relief on her suddenly pale face.

"Good," the machine said, carelessly tossing Nozomi over his shoulder.

Hikari scrambled to catch her sister, and though she succeeded, she had apparently overestimated her strength. The weight of the smaller girl sent her tumbling to her rear.

"And this is why you need to learn when it's best to just keep quiet," Hikari chided her.

Nozomi nodded, still looking a little green around the gills. However, the youngest sister was nothing if not resilient, and she recovered from her fright in time to spot the blur of blue and red that was soon visible in the air near them.

"Look!" she exclaimed, pointing. "Up in the sky!"

"It's Supergirl," Hikari breathed as the Girl of Steel came to a halt in the air above them, feeling relief sweep over her.

"_Oooh_, you're in trouble now!" Nozomi said to the mechanical man, as though he was a schoolyard bully who'd been caught red-handed in the act of harassing someone by the principal.

"_Nozomi_!" Hikari hissed. "Quit taunting the evil robot!"

_God, I can't believe I just said that,_ she thought an instant later.

Fortunately, the mechanical man was now ignoring the two sisters completely, his attention entirely on the Girl of Steel.

"Greetings, Supergirl," he said. "You're not the one I'm looking for today."

"I don't care," Supergirl said flatly, coming to a landing on the roof, a few yards away from him. "I don't care about who you are, why you're doing this, or where you came from. Let the girls go, or I'm taking you apart."

Hikari blinked. Supergirl sounded about as irritated as she'd felt before this whole nightmare had started unfolding, and she couldn't help but wonder what kind of tribulations the famous Girl of Steel had gone through recently.

Also, there was something undeniably _familiar_ about her, but Hikari couldn't quite figure out what…

"I'm afraid I can't let them go just yet," the mechanical man said. "I have to hang onto them until the one I _am_ hoping to meet today makes an appearance."

"Okay, you've just used up your one warning," Supergirl declared, clearly not in the mood to argue with him. She approached the robot, balling her gloved hand into a fist and pulling it back.

A chamber in the robot's chest opened, revealing a glowing green rock. Supergirl gasped in surprise and horror, staggering back a step.

"How?" she asked.

"You're not the one I'm after today," the mechanical man said, "but you _are_ the one I was designed to kill."

His fist shot out at her. Supergirl attempted to block, but he easily knocked her arm aside, his metal fist slamming into her jaw. The masked girl released a grunt of pain, staggering several steps back.

"Sister, what's happening?" Nozomi asked, clearly dismayed and bewildered at what they were seeing.

Hikari could only shake her head, no less confused. "I don't know."

Regaining her balance, Supergirl slowly began to take to the air, apparently trying to get some distance between her and the robot with the mysterious green rock in his chest.

Then the machine man's optics glowed green, shooting out twin beams of light that were the exact same color as the rock. He hit Supergirl dead on, and the superwoman screamed in pain, collapsing back to the ground.

The mechanical man didn't give her the opportunity to get back up. He was on her in an eye blink, hitting her again and again with his metal fists.

"Sister, we have to do something!" Nozomi said. "We need to help her!"

"But how can we?" Hikari asked helplessly. She didn't like watching the scene in front of them anymore than her sister did, but she was far more conscious of what they could realistically do in this situation. Which wasn't very much. "If this guy can take _Supergirl,_ how can we hope to stop him?"

Nozomi had no answer for that. The younger girl just clenched her small fists, scowling as she watched the robot beating up on the superwoman who should've been able to take him with one hand tied behind her back.

"Ha!" the machine man taunted his opponent, even as he continued to pummel her relentlessly. "You're not so tough! Not when I know your weak—!"

Then Supergirl reached out and caught his fist in her palm, instantly shutting him up.

"You were saying?" she asked in a soft, menacing tone.

Before the machine man could answer, the Girl of Steel kicked him, sending him flying off of her. He crashed to the ground right next to the Horaki sisters, landing with enough force to crack the rooftop. Hikari quickly took hold of Nozomi and led her away from him, only wishing that they could go further.

Supergirl pulled herself to her feet, and Hikari couldn't help but wince at the sight of her. Impossible though it seemed, the young superwoman who was normally capable of shrugging off bullets like they were raindrops was currently sporting a black eye and a busted lip. The image of Supergirl obviously hurt was so _wrong_ somehow that it set Hikari's stomach churning unpleasantly.

_Who __**is**__ this guy, and what's the deal with that glowing rock?_ She wondered, feeling completely helpless and hating it.

"You have more fight in you than I was expecting," the machine man commented, surveying the sizable dent Supergirl had left him with.

"Where did you get that?" Supergirl demanded, pointing at the green rock.

The mechanical man chuckled. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

With that, he charged at her. Supergirl stood her ground, mustering enough strength to keep from getting bowled over when he crashed into her. The two started to grapple fiercely. At first, the Girl of Steel appeared to have the advantage, but in only moments she started to weaken further, allowing the machine man to claim the upper hand.

_Oh no,_ Hikari thought, fearing that Supergirl was about to lose, leaving them in the same position they'd been in before, except with substantially less hope.

Then, with a massive effort, the Girl of Steel managed to briefly lift the machine man off his feet, swinging him to the side and throwing him, releasing a loud grunt as she did so. He bounced once, then went over the edge of the building.

There was no scream.

"Is he…is he gone?" Nozomi spoke up into the ringing silence that followed the short but brutal clash.

"I…I think so," Supergirl said uncertainly, rubbing her eyes as though there was something wrong with them.

She walked to the edge of the building to confirm that she'd sent the machine man plummeting to the street below.

A metallic hand shot up, grabbing holding of her booted foot and _pulling_, taking Supergirl over the edge. Hikari and Nozomi each released a cry of surprise that was far louder than Supergirl's own as she disappeared from their view, only to return as she slowly flew up into the air, the metal man hanging onto her despite her attempts to shake him off. She looked like she was struggling with his weight, even though she'd been known to easily fly while carrying cars.

"Going down?" he asked, just before firing another blast of green energy at her from his optics, causing Supergirl to plummet like a lead balloon.

_I know this is probably greedy, but we could really use another superwoman right about now,_ Hikari silently pleaded to any gods that might be listening.

* * *

"God bless whoever invented GPS," Steel commented to herself as she soared through the city, following the directions displayed on her HUD.

Not long after departing from the Batcave, she'd discovered that she hadn't _quite_ thought out the entire operation. Most notably, she'd had no idea exactly where the mechanical man was holding Hikari and her sister hostage. Fortunately, Motomu, despite his obvious misgivings, had been willing to look up the address for her once she'd radioed him.

_Here's hoping the rest of this goes a little bit more smoothly,_ she thought as she approached her destination, banishing the map on her HUD so she could see everything before her clearly.

Her eyes widened the moment she realized what was happening. Supergirl had arrived at the scene before her and had apparently fought with the robot. Rather than easily defeating the thing, as anyone would have expected her to, though, she was currently laying in a small crater in the street that was situated right in front of the building where the Horaki sisters were being held. The robot was looming over her, looking none the worse for the wear.

_No way,_ she thought. _Impossible!_

Steel had been prepared for the possibility that NERV, by combining technology from the Evangelions and from Hokkaido Heavy Industries, had managed to create something even more powerful than her new Exosuit. She hadn't thought it was likely, but she wouldn't have declared it impossible.

Yet she _never_ would have believed that NERV could create something capable of laying Supergirl low. The sight filled her trepidation and horror.

_God, if that robot can beat __**her**__ up like that, what chance do I have of defeating it?_ She wondered. _That thing left Hikari and her sister alone up there. Maybe I can grab them before it notices me and…_

Then Steel clenched her armored fists, scowling with disgust as she realized what she was thinking. Supergirl was her hero; the first time she had ventured out in the original Exosuit, she had tried to think of herself as "the other Girl of Steel" as a means of psyching herself up. She couldn't just leave her to die!

"Hands off the living legend!" she barked as she rapidly descended, coming to a halt about fifteen feet above the ground, where she hovered easily. The mechanical man turned to face her.

Her arm snapped up, and she fired off three standard rivets at the mechanical man, her targeting computing assuring that her aim was dead on. Two of the metal bolts hit him in the chest, while a third struck him right in the forehead. He went staggering away from Supergirl, but his armor was just as tough as she'd feared, and the rivets did very little real damage.

_Can't risk the exploding ones here. I could kill someone,_ Steel thought grimly, noting that there were far too many people watching the scene, rather than doing the sensible thing and running the hell away.

She realized with an unpleasant jolt that she might even manage to hurt Supergirl. The robot had somehow managed to beat the normally invincible superwoman bloody, and she was looking much the worse for the wear.

"Well, well, well, looks like the guest of honor finally decided to arrive," the machine man commented as a compartment in his chest sealed itself, obscuring some strange green rock from view. "I've been waiting for you, 'Steel'."

Beneath her helmet, Steel's eyebrows went up. What she'd thought was a robot was sounding all too human.

_Too small to be a suit like mine,_ she thought. _Maybe it's remote controlled? But there's no sign of any type of antenna...and what was the deal with that stone?_

"Speechless?" the…whatever it was taunted her.

"Hardly," she snapped back, deciding she'd have to figure things out later. "Tell me, who the hell are you?"

"These days I'm known as Metallo," he answered her, and though his metallic face was incapable of expression, Steel could clearly hear the sneer in his voice.

"Well, Metallo," the girl in the metal suit said, "why don't you let Supergirl go?" she asked.

"I have a better idea," Metallo replied. "Why don't you try and make me?"

Then, before Steel could even think of a reply, he leaped directly at her. She cried out in surprise as he collided with her and grabbed hold. Her suit automatically responded to all the extra weight by kicking the jets in her boots to maximum burn, but she was badly unbalanced with Metallo on her and went careening wildly through the air.

_God, why does this keeping happening?_ Steel wondered, almost most exasperated than scared.

"Get off me!" she shouted as she struggled to get free.

"After it took this long to find you? Never!" he shouted back.

"We're going to hit something sooner or later, you idiot!" she yelled, even as her stomach roiled from the insane ride. She was barely able to exert any control over their flight.

"Yeah, so?" was his clever response.

They clipped the side of one of Tokyo-3's many tall buildings then, hitting the corner with such force that they broke off several large chunks of steel and concrete, sending them raining down to the ground below. Steel winced as she was jostled around unpleasantly inside her armor, knowing she'd be feeling this battle tomorrow.

"Get off!" she growled, doing her best to break out of the bear hug he had her in.

The distinctive whirring sound of her armor's powerful servos reached Steel's ears, and, slowly but surely, she began to raise her arms, loosening Metallo's grip.

"You're not as strong as I thought you'd be," Steel said in an almost conversational tone, once she had nearly finished extracting him.

Before she could send him plummeting toward the ground, however, Metallo released her and began to climb over her frame with a level of dexterity that a monkey would have envied. Steel frantically tried to get a hold of him, but he managed to elude her with seemingly little effort.

_God damn, he's fast,_ Steel cursed silently.

Then he was on her back, at a place that was almost impossible for her reach, especially with her movements restrained by the heavy suit of armor. Wrapping his legs around her torso in a vice grip, he took hold of her helmet with both hands and began to pull it upwards.

_Uh-oh,_ Steel thought, as Metallo's ministrations caused bursts of static to bloom on her HUD. If he managed to remove her helmet, not only would her face be visible to anyone she encountered, but she'd lose much of her ability to control the armor. Her A-10 connectors were in there, after all.

There was no time to try and pry his legs off of her; securely fastened though her helmet was, it wouldn't last much longer against Metallo's strength. In fact, Steel could think of only one possible solution that _would_ be fast enough.

Of course, that didn't mean she had to like it.

_Shock absorbers, don't fail me now,_ she thought as she changed the position of her legs, so the jets in her boots propelled them straight down. The girl in the metal suit and the mechanical man immediately plunged toward the ground.

Metallo, so intent on the task of ripping off her helmet, didn't realize what she was up to until it was too late. "What are you—?"

Then they crashed into a parked car, which crumpled like a soda can beneath the force of their impact. Steel grimaced beneath her helmet, only her reluctance to show Metallo weakness keeping her from groaning aloud. That had hurt even more than she'd expected it to.

For several seconds after their fall, everything was quiet in the pile of twisted metal and broken glass where the two metallic combatants had landed. Around them, car horns blared and people screamed, understandably panicked by what had just happened. Yet Steel and Metallo just lay in a large, metallic heap for several seconds.

_Ow_, was all the other Girl of Steel could think at first, badly dazed by the fall. She had built significant safety devices into her armor to protect her from impacts, along with some good old fashioned foam padding. However, while her precautions had managed to save her life and spare her any serious injury, nothing could fully muffle an impact like that.

Then Metallo started to move again. Taking a firm grip of Steel, he leaped up and out of the ruined automobile's remains, holding her high above his head. Several of the people who'd been unfortunate enough to be driving or walking down that particular street at the moment screamed at the sight of him.

Metallo ignored them all, hurling Steel into the side of a nearby building. The girl in the metal suit groaned in pain as she hit it with enough force to leave a spider web of cracks in the concrete. She tumbled to the ground a moment later and rose her head to see the mechanical man approaching her.

"After everything you've done to me, I should kill you here. Just rip you apart limb from limb," he snarled.

"What are you talking about?" Steel asked, bewildered.

"Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to do that," Metallo continued, ignoring her. "The…my boss wants you alive, so you can hand over all the technological secrets you have. But that doesn't mean I can't rough you up a little first."

Steel fired off two shots from one of her rivet cannons, this time letting the exploding bolts fly. They hit Metallo right in the abdomen and immediately erupted into twin plumes of fire and smoke, sending the machine man flying backwards. He landed a good twenty meters away from where he'd been originally standing.

"Sorry to disappoint you," she said as she got back to her feet, "but this girl's still got plenty of fight left in her."

"Who said I was disappointed?" Metallo asked, chuckling darkly.

With that, he grabbed hold of one of the cars that had come to a halt in the now chaotic street and lifted it easily above his head. The woman and the little boy inside clung to each other, clearly terrified.

"Oh, damn," Steel breathed, realizing _exactly_ what Metallo planned to do.

With a grunt, the machine man threw the car, causing the two people inside to scream. Steel knew she couldn't simply get out of the way; if she did, the car would crash right into the concrete wall she'd just become so close to. The two people inside would almost certainly be killed.

She had just enough time to hope her armor was as good as she thought it was.

Then she reached up and grabbed the flying vehicle with both hands.

For one terrifying second, it seemed like she couldn't quite balance the thing, and that she'd drop it. Probably it would land right on top of her, allowing Metallo to just waltz right up to her and pummel her mercilessly.

Then she managed to stabilize it, holding it over her head the same way Metallo had just been doing. Despite herself, she grinned beneath her helmet, feeling a rush of pride.

_And the armor's not even straining under all this weight!_ She thought. _Damn, I am awesome at designing weapons!_

Her moment was brought to an abrupt halt by the sight of Metallo charging at her. With little room to maneuver and the car still in her grasp, Steel could only see one way to stop him that didn't involve killing the two innocents in her grip.

Just before the mechanical man reached her, she brought the car down, hard, and Metallo disappeared beneath it. The two people inside the vehicle were bounced unpleasantly, the woman's head even hitting the roof, but they were unharmed.

Nevertheless, the little boy still gave her a dirty look.

"Sorry," Steel said sheepishly. "Um, you two should probably get out now."

The woman didn't need to be told twice. Grabbing the little boy, she opened the door to the car and burst out, running away from the two mechanical combatants in a full sprint.

It was none too soon. Metallo tossed the car off of himself almost contemptuously, popping up like a jack-in-the-box. Before Steel could react, he punched her right in the abdomen, leaving a dent in her armor.

_God, he's **fast**,_ she thought as Metallo managed to get in a series of jabs, beating up her suit.

Finally, Steel managed to fire off a punch of her own, striking Metallo right in the face and sending him flying. The mechanical man landed on his feet this time, clearly intent on preventing her from seizing the initiative.

Steel wasn't having it. She grabbed hold of one of her hammers, and, with a thought, deactivated the magnetic plate holding it to her back. The progressive axe blade on one side of the hammer came to life with a menacing hum.

Metallo paused, clearly realizing that close range combat was not the best of ideas at the moment. Instead of charging at her, he moved to pick up another car.

Even though this one was mercifully empty (most of the bystanders had taken their cues to run by this point), Steel wasn't about to let him toss another automobile at her. She fired an exploding rivet at the ground near his feet, knocking him off balance, and then charged, her weapon held high.

Metallo moved to block, of course. Steel ignored him and swung, the progressive axe cleanly slicing through his left arm at the elbow.

Despite everything, despite knowing that Metallo's chassis was too narrow to hold a man and being absolutely _sure_ that he wasn't a person in a suit, like her, Steel was still a little surprised when all her attack exposed was sparking wires and more metal. Metallo's behavior and speech were _much_ too human to be the product of an AI.

"Bitch," he snarled.

Case in point.

Then, rather than charging at her again as Steel had both expected and hoped he would, Metallo took off. One massive leap sent the impossibly fast and agile machine man soaring into the air, away from her. Frowning beneath her helmet, Steel ignited her jets and started to fly after him.

_Missing an arm or not, that…guy's too pissed to just retreat,_ she decided. _So where the hell is he going?_

She realized too late that he was heading back to the building where he'd kept the two Horaki sisters prisoner.

"You took everything I had left away from me!" Metallo yelled, coming to a stop on a window ledge, where he had a clear view of the rooftop in question. "Now I'm taking your friend away from you!"

A compartment slid open on his remaining forearm, and a small rocket popped out. Its size didn't fool Steel, however; she knew all too well just how much destructive potential the thing had.

"_No!_" she shouted.

Metallo fired. Steel could only watch in horror as the rocket streaked through the sky, promising to kill Hikari and her younger sister.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** First off, please forgive the blatant shout out to STAS in the chapter title. It seemed very appropriate.

Anyway, here's the first meeting between Metallo and Steel. Poor Asuka. First Batgirl gets one up on her, and then she picks a fight with someone who turns out to be an anti-Supergirl weapon.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

* * *

Omake

Tributes and Tribulations

Taking a few steps away from everything else in the room, Mana donned a pair of A-10 connector clips and gave the suit a mental command. Immediately, the jets she'd installed into the bottom of the boots ignited, lifting her off the floor. For a brief moment, the young prodigy found herself gripped by terror; she had grown used to flying by now, but doing it without the heavy armor felt very different. It seemed like the slightest miscalculation on her part could send her careening out of control.

However, it didn't take long for her to gain confidence, and Mana was soon flying around the cave, finding it even easier to control her flight than she'd hoped.

"Oh, yeah," the auburn-haired girl said as she landed. "She can fly."

Just then, one of the cave's wall's exploded, sending chunks of rock flying in all directions. Coughing, Mana fanned away the dust until she could see…and her eyes widened.

Her SOE1 counterpart stood in the hole she had blasted into the side of the cave.

"What the hell was _that_?" Iron Maiden demanded.

"Um, what the hell was what?" Mana asked timidly.

"That line! It was a total rip-off of the one Tony uses in the first Iron Man movie!" Iron Maiden barked.

"I think of it as more a tribute, but so what?" Mana asked.

"_I'm _the one who's supposed to be doing that kind of thing!" Iron Maiden snapped.

"Oh, c'mon, gimmie a break here," Mana said. "Steel's a pretty obscure character. What am I supposed to be making shout-outs to?"

"Steel had a movie, too," Iron Maiden said stubbornly.

"Well, yeah, but Mike's never seen it," Mana countered. "And since everything he's heard about it indicates that it sucked hard, it's not really on his to-do list. So can't we just share the Iron Man movie? There's plenty of awesome to go around, so can't we just get along?"

Iron Maiden tiled her head to the side, seeming to consider.

"Nah." She decided eventually, firing a turquoise death beam at Mana.

"Eep!" Mana squeaked, just barely dodging the blast.

Iron Maiden fired several more bolts of energy at her counterpart, who was forced to go running around the cave in struggle to avoid them.

"It just figures," she grumbled to herself. "With me new armor, I actually stand a fighting chance against her. So, of course, she shows up for a rematch while I'm wearing Mayumi's stupid bat pajamas!"


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Nine:** Meeting of the Metals, Part Two

"Come on, come on…"

After all the ordeals Mana Kirishima had gone through recently, she thought that she knew the feeling of panic as well as anyone. Yet only now did she realize that she hadn't known true panic up until this moment.

"Come on…"

True panic wasn't coming home one day, finding her front door left swinging open and knowing immediately, down in the pit of her soul, that something was very wrong. It wasn't even having a small army of thugs in black suits coming after her and having no idea how she was going to escape from them.

"Come on…!"

_True_ panic was knowing that someone she cared about had only moments to live unless she saved them, and thinking that she wasn't up to the job.

"_Come on!_" she screamed.

She had only seconds before the missile Metallo had fired struck the roof of a nearby skyscraper, where the metal man had stranded Hikari and her younger sister. A targeting reticule repeatedly appeared on her HUD one moment only to vanish the next as she desperately tried to get a lock on the thing. Her targeting computer was simply not designed to deal with extremely fast, small targets in mind. Steel had more expected to be dealing with people when she'd made her weapons.

Even if she did, by some miracle, get a lock, there was still no guarantee she'd manage to shoot the missile down. Her rivet guns, like her targeting computer, simply hadn't been designed for such a thing.

"Please, please," she said, begging for aid from whatever deities might be listening as she frantically tried to shoot down the missile that Metallo had fired

Her targeting computer emitted a weak tone as she finally managed to get a partial lock. It would have to be good enough; Steel was out of time. She fired…

…and _missed_, the rivet falling far short of ever hitting the missile.

"No," Steel moaned, feeling her heart plummeting down into her stomach as she watched the missile moving toward its helpless targets.

Hikari and her sister were going to die, and she couldn't do anything about it.

An instant before the deadly ordnance could impact, something blue and red streaked upwards from the ground, intercepting the missile. The shell erupted into an orange fireball, unleashing a shockwave that knocked the two Horaki sisters off their feet, but otherwise left them unharmed.

For the briefest of instants, Steel could only stare at the rapidly shrinking cloud of fire and smoke in complete bewilderment, unable to comprehend the miracle that had spared Hikari and her younger sister.

Then a girl tumbled out of the smoke, her blond hair flying about wildly as she fell limply toward the ground, and Steel belatedly realized what had happened.

Supergirl, despite having already been half-dead when "the other Girl of Steel" had arrived on the scene, had gotten in the missile's way and taken the hit herself in order to spare Hikari and her sister.

Steel was briefly overcome by a fresh wave of awe for her idol; she had never doubted that Supergirl was a true hero in every sense of the word, but to actually see such an act of courage with her own eyes…

Then the girl in the metal suit snapped back to the present, immediately plunging downwards in an attempt to catch Supergirl before she could hit the ground. However, she knew almost at once that she wouldn't make it in time, and she could only wince as she watched her hero hit the sidewalk, fervently hoping that Supergirl could withstand just that much more abuse.

A moment later, Steel landed next to her. The street was deserted, almost eerily so, with everyone having fled the area as a result of her clash with Metallo. The sight of the invincible heroine looking so battered and beaten was more than a little disturbing, the armored girl decided.

"Supergirl! Are you all right?" she asked. "Please, wake up. Say something."

The superwoman's sky blue eyes opened just a crack, and she mumbled something that sounded a lot like, "Damn clouds," before passing out again.

Steel blinked, looking up at the sky for a moment before turning back to Supergirl. Why would the original Girl of Steel care if there was an overcast?

Then she shook her head, dismissing the question. "Medical scan," she ordered, suddenly feeling very glad that she'd installed this particular feature.

She was instantly treated to a view of Supergirl's skeleton as it appeared on her HUD, along with readouts on her vitals. To her surprise, the superwoman had no serious injuries that she could detect, though she had sustained a plethora of superficial wounds.

_God, she's tough,_ Steel thought as she carefully gathered Supergirl up in her arms.

It wouldn't do to have people see the great super heroine like this, after all.

Igniting the jets in her boots, Steel took off, landing on the first convenient rooftop and gently setting Supergirl down there. Now that she was confident the superwoman wasn't on death's doorstep, she could divert her attention back to another pressing matter.

Metallo.

The mechanical man had apparently made a run for it after firing that missile, but even in Tokyo-3, a one-armed robot drew quite a bit of attention, doubly so when he obviously didn't care about hurting people who got in his way. Steel took off through the air, following the trail of destruction and panic Metallo left in his wake. It wasn't long before she caught sight of the machine man.

"Hey, big man, forget about me?" Steel asked, firing a few rivets off at him.

Metallo's only response was to growl and dive out the way of the projectiles, his great weight cracking the sidewalk below him as he landed. He regained his feet in an eye blink, though, and was once more off again at top speed.

Steel growled in frustration as she fired more rivets at him, all with similarly lackluster results. She would've let the exploding ones fly, but the innocent civilians in this part of the city hadn't had a chance to get away yet.

_Damn he's fast,_ she thought. _Even with my jets, I'm barely keeping up with him. How am I supposed to stop him?_

She was still pondering the question when Metallo scrambled over to one of the access points which led into the bowels of the vast metal plate that separated Tokyo-3 from the Geofront below. The machine man, despite being down one arm, was easily able to rip the heavy metal door right off its hinges. Tossing it carelessly aside (and almost crushing a young man who barely managed to avoid it), he plunged inside.

Steel grinned beneath her helmet. Metallo was probably hoping to lose her in the labyrinth of maintenance tunnels that existed inside the plate, but _she_ was the one who'd have the advantage down there. Mayumi used the tunnels extensively to get around Tokyo-3 without being seen, and Steel had downloaded the maps she'd created into the new Exosuit's hard drive.

Calling up those maps with a quick verbal command, Steel plunged down into the tunnels after Metallo.

"You made a bad move coming down here," she called out, even as she ran after Metallo. "A really bad move."

"Go to hell, bitch!" he shouted back at her from a distance.

Steel just shook her head, still unable to figure out why something that seemed like a robot could have such a (nasty) human personality.

As she continued to chase Metallo through the tunnels, she realized to her surprise that she was catching up to him. She'd assumed that she'd need to use the maps to find shortcuts and get ahead of him that way, but the constant twists and turns must have been forcing him to move at well below his top speed.

_I'm gonna catch him,_ she thought as she finally got within sight of her quarry. _Then maybe I can finally find out who—and __**what**__—this guy is._

Unfortunately, Metallo seemed to realize at that very moment just how close his pursuer had gotten. With a growl, he raised his remaining arm, and the compartment on his forearm opened for a second time that day, revealing another small missile.

"How many of those things do you have?!" Steel exclaimed, caught by surprise.

Metallo didn't answer, instead opting to fire his second missile. The girl in the metal suit had just enough time to brace herself before it hit, hoping her armor could withstand the explosion.

Only the missile didn't hit her. Metallo hadn't aimed for her. Instead, the thing struck the roof of the tunnel between the two of them, causing steel and concrete to come raining down as that section collapsed. Steel was only barely able to stop and reverse course quickly enough to avoid being completely buried in the avalanche of debris. As it was, she ended up face down on the floor, her legs pinned by fallen chunks of metal and concrete.

With a grunt of effort, along with a loud whir of servo-motors from her armor, Steel managed to free herself, but one look at the collapsed section of the tunnel made it obvious that she wasn't going _that_ way.

"Map," she growled irritably, bringing up the chart of the tunnels in the plate once again.

Her shoulders slumped at what she saw; the tunnel she and Metallo were in branched off into dozens of others, which themselves diverged into still other tunnels. With no idea of which route he would choose, she had no chance of looping around and catching him.

_Damn,_ she thought, just knowing that Metallo would be causing her problems in the future. She sighed. _Well, I guess I should check on Supergirl._

Using her map to find the nearest access point, Steel returned to the surface, quickly flying back to where she'd left the unconscious superwoman.

Only to find no one there.

Suddenly feeling uneasy, the girl in the metal suit glanced up at the sky, but she saw no sign of the caped heroine. Looking toward the building where Metallo had left the Horaki sisters prisoner and zooming in on it with her HUD, Steel saw no sign of anyone there now. The other superwoman had likely helped them to the ground.

Steel might've thought that Supergirl was a great hero, an example to be followed, but there was certainly no guarantee that the original Girl of Steel had similar feelings about _her_.

If anything, it was much more likely that Supergirl thought she was some rank amateur, who was more of a danger than a help to Tokyo-3 and its denizens.

Steel was suddenly very afraid that Supergirl would order her to quit the superwoman business if she encountered her again. She had no idea how Metallo had managed to best the original Girl of Steel so easily, but Steel still wasn't willing to bet that her own armor would hold up any better than the average soda can against Supergirl's might.

_I'd better get out of here,_ she decided, igniting her jets and taking off in the direction of Yamagishi Manor.

Unfortunately, this was apparently the worst thing she could have done, so far as avoiding the attention of the other superwoman was concerned. The instant she was above the roof of the building, she heard a voice calling out to her.

"Hey!"

Turning her head, Steel saw that Supergirl was indeed flying after her. Reacting on instinct, she immediately switched the jets in her boots to maximum burn and went streaking through the sky.

A second later, she felt ready to kick herself for how stupid she'd been. There was no way she could hope to out fly Supergirl. Trying to escape would probably only give the superwoman an even worse impression of her.

Yet when she turned her head to look, it seemed like she _was_ getting away. Supergirl must've still been suffering the effects of whatever Metallo had done to her. Steel felt hope rise up within her.

"Hey, wait!" the original Girl of Steel called, as the gap between them widened. "Stop!"

Steel didn't stop, filled with an overwhelming fear that if the other superwoman caught up to her, it would inevitably lead to a clash between Supergirl and Batgirl, as they feuded over whether or not Steel should be allowed to continue her activities.

"Wait up!" Supergirl called. "_Mana_!"

Steel abruptly came to a halt in midair, thunderstruck by the revealation that Supergirl knew her name.

_How could that be?_ She wondered.

She had read in the _Tokyo Tattler_ that Supergirl was supposed to have X-ray vision, and if that was true, she could've easily seen what Steel looked like beneath her armor. Still, that didn't explain how Supergirl had known her name.

Her mind was still reeling when the other superwoman finally managed to catch up to her; even though she clearly wasn't at a hundred percent, Supergirl was still very fast, and she managed to close the gap between them in only a second or two once Steel stopped.

"Mana!" Supergirl exclaimed, placing a hand on Steel's armored shoulder as she moved to face her, the two of them hovering high above the city. "I'm so glad to see you! I was so worried when you disappeared and we saw that your house was destroyed!"

"What…but…how do you…?" she stammered in confusion, before realizing abruptly just _why_ Supergirl seemed so familiar. "Wait a second. _Asuka_?"

Supergirl smiled broadly, and in that moment Steel knew, even before the other girl confirmed it. "That's me, all right," she said. "Now—"

"Oh my god! This is so _cool_!" Steel shrilled, sounding every bit like the teenage girl she was. "I'm friends with Supergirl!"

"Yeah, awesome," Supergirl said grumpily, and it was only now that Steel was over her anxiety and surprise and the following elation that she realized just how unwell her friend looked. Supergirl was pale, and her shoulder slumped; she looked exhausted.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"I could use some sun. Come on," Supergirl said, flying off.

Small breaks in the clouds over Tokyo-3 had formed, allowing a few shafts of golden sunlight to make their way down to shine on the city. Asuka quickly located a convenient spot high on the roof of skyscraper that was bathed in the glow from one such sunbeam and sat down, her legs kicking over the ledge of the building.

Almost instantly, Steel saw an improvement in her friend's condition. Her color improved, returning to normal, and she straightened her slumped shoulders.

"Sunlight fuels your powers?" Steel asked curiously as she gingerly came down for a landing and sat next to Supergirl.

"Yeah, but never mind that," Supergirl replied, giving her friend a serious look. "We need to talk."

Steel sighed, and reached up to undo the clamps holding her helmet in place. It came off with a soft hiss, and she set it down next to her.

"Okay," Mana said solemnly.

"Who's after you?" Supergirl asked. "Who really kidnapped your mother?"

Mana sighed. She knew that Asuka would ask that sooner or later, but she'd hoped for later. "I can't tell you that," she said.

"Why the hell not?" Supergirl demanded. "Mana, these people are dangerous. I can help you stop them if you'll just let me!"

The auburn-haired girl felt a lump forming in her throat, and she couldn't reply right away. With the way her mother's job had them constantly moving from place to place, Mana had only ever had the most casual of friendships before. Now here was Asuka, ready and more than willing to go to the mat for her against the organization that was after her, even though they hadn't known each other for very long at all. It was probably something Supergirl would do for anyone, but Mana was still extremely touched by it.

"I'm not trying to shut you out, here, Asuka," Mana said, "but I can't put you in that kind of danger."

"Uh, hello?" Supergirl said, pointing to the S-shield emblazed upon her chest.

"Yes, I know, you're Supergirl, you're bullet-proof," Mana said, heaving a sigh.

"So why won't you let me help you? Just explain everything to me, and we can go after the bad guys together," Supergirl pressed. Then her eyes narrowed. "Is it because of Batgirl? Has she ordered you not to tell me anything? Is she mistreating you, Mana?"

"No, it's not like that," Mana rushed to reassure her friend. "Batgirl's been more than fair to me, and she's never threatened me or anything. I just…"

"Just what?" Supergirl prompted.

Mana sighed, looking down at her armored hands. How was she supposed to tell Asuka that the group that had left her mother in a coma and was now out to get her was NERV? The very same organization that Asuka had devoted much of her life to? The one that was still charged with the critical mission of stopping the Angels?

"God, I want to tell you so much. I'd love your help," Mana said. "But I just can't. It would be…terrible for you—you personally—if you knew."

"What do you mean?" Supergirl asked, her eyes narrowed.

But Mana just shook her head and continued to look down at her hands.

Supergirl sighed. "So that's how it is, then? You'll work with Batgirl, but not with me?"

"It's not like that!" Mana exclaimed. "Believe me, I'd _much_ rather be working with you!"

"But you can't. You've got this crazy idea that whoever you're dealing with is too dangerous even for Supergirl, and nothing I can say will change your mind, will it?" the original Girl of Steel said.

She sounded so bitterly disappointed that Mana was tempted to tell her everything anyway. It was only with a supreme force of will that she resisted the impulse.

"No," she said.

Supergirl's lips pressed into a thin line. "What happened to that Metallo…thing?" she asked. "Did you manage to stop him?"

Mana shook her head. "He got away."

Supergirl nodded. "You saw that glowing green rock he had in his chest?" she asked. "That was a piece of something called kryptonite, and it's the only thing that can hurt me so far as I know."

"So that's why Metallo was winning your fight with him," Mana said, all that suddenly making sense now.

"Yeah," Supergirl said. "That thing might've been after you, but it was _made_ to fight me. These people can make stuff that can hurt even me, Mana."

"All the more reason to keep their attention on me, and for you to stay out of it," the girl in the metal suit countered.

"Okay, and what happens when they make something specially designed to fight _you_?" Supergirl asked.

"They can't. Their tech's not that good," Mana said, fervently hoping she was right about that.

"Fine," Supergirl said, finally relenting.

She stood up, reaching out a hand to help Mana up. The auburn-haired girl took it, and despite the great weight of her armor, Supergirl pulled her to her feet effortlessly.

"If you change your mind, you know where to find me," Supergirl said. "And it was good seeing you, even if you're being stupid and keeping secrets."

Mana smiled. "It was good to see you, too," she said. "When this is all over, we'll go to the mall and hang out, just like before…everything."

She felt very silly, standing before Supergirl and talking about going to the mall with her, even though, she realized with some amazement, that she had already done so, several times in fact.

"Okay," Supergirl said, then cast her gaze out toward the open sky. "I have to check on something. There's only one place I know of where that kryptonite could've possibly come from."

"Right," Mana said. "See you soon." She added, hoping she was speaking the truth.

Supergirl responded with a curt nod, and Mana could tell her friend was still upset. Then she was off, streaking through the sky at a blisteringly fast pace. The auburn-haired girl tried to watch her go, but she blinked, and then the superwoman was gone.

_I should head back to the Batcave,_ Mana thought, picking up her helmet and putting it back on.

However, she paused just before she took off. It was clear that Asuka wasn't heading back to her apartment, and Mayumi was no doubt angry at her already…

_Why not?_ Steel thought with a smile, taking off into the sky.

* * *

Meanwhile, Shinji Ikari sat in the apartment he called home, blissfully unaware of how close Hikari and Nozomi Horaki had come to death just minutes earlier, playing his cello.

Or at least, he was trying to play his cello. With Asuka having gone out, Misato still at NERV, and no sync tests scheduled for that day, the Third Child had found himself with a rare afternoon of solitude and peace before him. So he had gotten out his instrument, intending to enjoy it.

Unfortunately, he was finding that he just couldn't. Every time he tried to play, his mind would wander, and he'd start missing notes until the melody he was trying to coax out of the instrument deteriorated into a series of noises that didn't resemble music in the slightest.

After his latest attempt went similarly awry, Shinji sighed and set the bow down.

_Mana…_

The auburn-haired girl had never been far from his thoughts since Batgirl had taken him to visit her, and Shinji had found that he was even more worried about her than he'd been before he'd known what had happened to her.

Also, though he knew this was of far less importance, it hadn't escaped him that he might've been out spending the afternoon with his new girlfriend, if things had been more normal.

His girlfriend. The phrase seemed so strange and wonderful, because Shinji had never really expected to have a girlfriend.

And he didn't just have a girlfriend; so far as the pilot of Unit One was concerned, he had an _awesome_ girlfriend. Mana was so beautiful, smart, and kind that Shinji normally would've been disinclined to believe that she really wanted to be his girlfriend, despite the fact that she'd kissed him. Yet she'd actually referred to herself as such, eliminating away any seed of doubt that might've sprouted later.

So, an amazing girl actually liked him, but he never got to spend any time with her now.

_God, what is __**wrong**__ with you?_ He chastised himself. _Mana's in a horrible situation, and you're feeling sorry for yourself because you have no one to go on a date with right now._

He sighed softly as he gazed at the cello's case, settling for wishing that things could be more normal.

"If only there was something I could do to help make that happen," he muttered to himself, finally giving up on playing his cello all together and moving to put the instrument away.

However, he had barely gotten the case open when something blocked out most of the light coming from the room's far window. Turning to look, Shinji started at the sight of an armored figure hovering in midair outside, just beyond the balcony. He was so surprised that he let go of his cello and had to frantically grab at the neck of the instrument to prevent it from falling to the floor.

The armored figure responded to his panicked fumbling with a very girlish laugh, confirming what Shinji already knew.

"Mana!" he exclaimed, taking only a moment to set his cello down before rushing to open the balcony doors.

"Hi, Shinji," she replied. Her helmet distorted her voice slightly, but it was unmistakably Mana Kirishimia beneath Steel's armor.

He stared at her, barely daring to believe that after what felt like an eternity of pining for her, she was right here before him.

Then he abruptly snapped back to the present. "Mana! Please, come inside," he invited her, gesturing toward the apartment.

"I would, but I don't think this balcony will be able to hold me. This armor weighs a ton. And I don't think my jets will do good things to the rug in there," she added, gesturing to the gouts of flame shooting from the bottom of her boots. They were remarkably quiet, Shinji noted absently. "Can you meet me up on the roof?"

"Sure," Shinji agreed at once.

Nodding, Steel ascended, quickly vanishing from his line of sight. Shinji instantly ran for the door to the apartment, all but sprinting up the stairs of the apartment building. He reached the roof just as Mana was taking off her helmet.

"Hi, Shinji," she said, suddenly acting shy now that he could see her face.

Mana had an acute case of hat hair from her helmet, she was visibly sweaty even from across the roof of the apartment building, and she was of course still clad in her imposing armor from the neck down.

Shinji thought she looked absolutely gorgeous.

Wordlessly, he rushed toward her, placed his hands on her cheeks, and gave her a long, clumsy, lingering kiss, a seeming eternity of longing expressing itself in one uncharacteristically impulsive action.

"Ah, sorry," he said as soon as they broke apart, embarrassed by his own boldness.

Mana was blushing a bright red, but she grinned at him. "Don't be," she said.

"God, I'm so glad to see you—"

"I could tell," Mana said with a small smirk.

"—I've been worried about you," he finished.

Mana sobered. "Yeah, I've been worried about you, too."

Shinji blinked. "Me? Why?"

She gave him a look. "You are still an Evangelion pilot, right?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, I am, of course, I just…" he stammered, her point catching him entirely by surprise. Compared to the predicament Mana had found herself stuck in, his life seemed very safe and secure, but of course it wasn't. "I'm just still not used to having people worry about my safety, is all."

"That's…kind of sad," the auburn-haired girl replied with a frown, then she smiled. "Well, you have someone to worry about you now." She said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Shinji did his best not to wince at the feel of the mechanical gauntlet, dearly wishing he and Mana could spend time together under more auspicious circumstances. "Do you have any idea yet when you'll be able to go back to a normal life?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No more than I did before," she answered. "I probably shouldn't even be visiting you like this. Bats won't like it, I'm sure."

Shinji's eyes widened. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked. "I'm happy to see you, but I don't want you to get hurt for it."

"It'll be fine, Shinji. Relax," Mana reassured him. "Batgirl's bark is worse than her bite. At least where people she views as allies are concerned." She added.

"Oh, good," Shinji said, not entirely comforted.

"But still, I can't stay long," Mana said. "So let's just enjoy the few minutes I'm stealing here."

He smiled. "Would you like me to hold you again? Like last time?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm sure the last thing you want to do is hug me while I'm wearing this," Mana said, rapping on her armor with her knuckles, producing a metallic clang. "You don't have to…"

She trailed off, gratefully falling silent as Shinji wordlessly wrapped his arms around her armored form.

* * *

As Shinji and Mana were enjoying their all too brief reunion, Supergirl was just crossing into German airspace, having trekked about halfway across the world in what was record time, even for her.

Prior to her run in with Metallo, Supergirl had only ever encountered kryptonite once before in her life, and it had been in the possession of a man named Emil Hamilton, who also happened to be the one responsible for her having superhuman powers to begin with.

It had been Hamilton who'd told her about her origins, about what she was. More than that, he had had a large role in motivating her to try to truly be the great hero that people saw when they looked at her. He had been a friend of her mother, and the original Girl of Steel considered him a friend, too, even if she'd only met him once before.

So Supergirl had spent her entire time in transit hoping against hope that wherever Metallo had come from, he'd gotten that piece of kryptonite in his chest from somewhere other than Emil Hamilton's basement.

Those hopes were dashed the moment she spied Hamilton's house with her super vision. Yellow police tape surrounded the property, and a peek inside with her X-ray eyes revealed only more disheartening sights. There were obvious signs a struggle, and a layer of dust was starting to accumulate on most of the surfaces, indicating that no one had occupied the house for some time.

It didn't take long for her to track down more information; the news of Hamilton's disappearance had been in the local papers, but neither the police nor the most intrepid of journalists had turned up very much. There was no body and no blood at the scene of the crime, so the authorities were presuming that Hamilton had been kidnapped. They currently had no suspects.

Supergirl's hands clenched into fists. The police might not know anything, but she did. She knew that whoever was after Mana now had Emil Hamilton in their possession.

Scowling, she starting heading back toward Tokyo-3.

* * *

"Welcome back."

These words, delivered entirely without any sort of warmth, caused Steel to cringe as she entered the Batcave. She knew, of course, that she wouldn't get off Scot free after her actions that day, but she had hoped to beat Mayumi home and enjoy at least a brief respite.

Also, she couldn't quite tell where the raven-haired girl actually _was_ in the dim cave, which just made the whole thing significantly creepier.

"Hello," she replied in a carefully neutral tone, taking off her helmet.

Mayumi stalked out of the shadows, her jaw set. The heiress had apparently rushed straight back from whatever business meeting she'd gotten roped into that day; she was still dressed in a charcoal gray pants suit, along with a pair of shoes with very modest heels. They were black, of course.

Most fourteen year old girls would've appeared comical in such an ensemble, like a kid trying too hard to look like an adult and only appearing all the more childish for it. In fact, that was probably the very image Mayumi had done her best to project when she'd been meeting with the corporate bigwigs at Yamagishi Enterprises earlier.

Now, however, Mayumi's intimidating presence was in full force, and there was nothing even remotely amusing about her at all.

Mana quickly grew tired of enduring the other girl's imposing glower. "Okay," she sighed. "Go ahead, let me have it."

"What the _hell_ were you thinking?" the raven-haired girl growled.

"I was thinking that one of my friends was in danger, and that I couldn't just leave her twisting in the wind," Mana said, mustering as much defiance as she could. "Hikari could've died if I didn't go help her! So could Supergirl, it turned out."

Mayumi's dark eyes narrowed, and it was suddenly all the auburn-haired girl could do not to quail in the face of the heiress.

"Listen to me," she said, as though there was any doubt that she had Mana's full and complete attention. "You work for me, Kirishima. Until our agreement is concluded, that armor you're wearing is my property. It is not yours to what you want with, and I will only allow you to keep using it for as long as I think you'll be more useful than detrimental with it. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes," Mana said in a small voice. She was sweating.

"Good," Mayumi replied, then turned, stalking toward the door that led out of the cave and into the manor.

Mana's shoulders slumped once the other girl's back was turned. She suddenly felt as limp as a rag doll.

"Oh, and for the record," Mayumi said as she reached the door, not turning to look at the girl in the metal suit, "I would never ask you to leave a friend to die like that. But I don't care how good you think that armor of yours is, you _don't_ go charging straight into an obvious trap without an ace up your sleeve. If you'd had the patience to wait a few minutes after hearing about the situation, I could've given you one, and maybe this Metallo would be our prisoner right now."

Mana blinked, then opened her mouth, feeling like she needed to make some kind of response to that. However, she soon found that she had no idea what that should be. An expression of gratitude? An apology? A promise to do better next time?

Before she could decide, Mayumi slipped through the door, ending the conversation.

* * *

By the time he made it back to NERV headquarters, Metallo was in an even more terrible mood than he'd been upon making his retreat. Unlike Steel, he had no maps of the tunnels beneath Tokyo-3 instantly available to him. Since it would have been imprudent at best for him to go above ground again, he'd been forced to wander around for hours until he'd discovered a path leading down into the Geofront itself.

Getting into NERV headquarters from there without setting off an alarm had been an entirely different, but no less severe, headache.

"What went wrong?" Gendo Ikari demanded, striding down into Terminal Dogma.

If not for the firmware in his head that prevented him from doing so, Metallo could have rushed over to the Commander and cheerfully throttled him. This was not the homecoming he had hoped for.

"Steel's armor made her more powerful than I am, that's what happened," he growled.

"Are you certain?" the Commander frowned.

"I do have firsthand experience, you know," Metallo growled. "I'm faster, but not by as much as I'd hoped. She's stronger and more heavily armed. Also, she can fly. I can't beat her in a straight fight. Not like this."

"It would appear that the daughter is at least as talented as her mother," Gendo mused, speaking more to himself than to Metallo, "and that you and your team only managed to gain a small portion of Dr. Kirishima's technological secrets before she was badly injured."

"That wasn't my fault," Metallo said defensively.

"The issue of blame is irrelevant now," Gendo said. "What _is_ important is the conundrum we now face."

"And what exactly is that?" Metallo asked. He tried to cross his arms, only to be reminded of the fact that he currently had only one.

_Damn that little bitch and her stupid progressive axe,_ he thought.

"Your current form is insufficient for apprehending Kirishima," Gendo explained. "You require an upgrade for that, but the person most qualified to give you one _is_ Kirishima."

"So?" Metallo asked, wondering if the Commander had always been this needlessly dramatic, or if the man was only showing this side of himself now because the programming in his head rendered him completely harmless to Ikari.

Gendo pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Clearly we must search for…alternate means of getting you new hardware."

* * *

By the time Asuka returned from wherever she'd been for most of that day, Shinji had finally managed to keep his mind focused long enough to play a complete song on his cello. He was teasing a melancholy tune from the instrument's strings when he heard the door open.

"Shinji? Where are you?" Asuka shouted from the kitchen.

The Third Child rolled his eyes. She could've followed the sound of the music easily enough, but instead she wanted him to come to her. Despite his mild annoyance, however, he put down his bow and carefully set the cello aside, getting up.

"What is it?" he asked as he entered the kitchen.

"Do you know what happened today, baka?" she demanded.

He blinked, the question's vagueness catching him by surprise. Nevertheless, he had an idea of what she meant. Shinji had noticed that Mana's armor was scuffed and scratched in various places, and while he'd been too caught up in the moment to ask her about it, he'd assumed that she'd been in some kind of fight.

"Uh, not exactly," he said.

"Do you never turn on the news?!" Asuka practically growled at him.

"I do sometimes. I just…didn't today," Shinji said defensively. "Something happened with Mana today, though, didn't it?"

"Yes," Asuka said, crossing her arms, "and I saw almost the whole thing."

Quickly, she related the tale of how she'd been passing through the city streets when she'd learned that some kind of robot, of all things, was keeping two girls hostage on the roof of a skyscraper. Those two girls had been Hikari and her younger sister Nozomi, as Asuka had discovered to her horror. However, before the Second Child could call NERV and demand that they do something, both Supergirl and Steel had arrived, driving the robot off.

"Are Hikari and her sister okay?" Shinji asked, shocked.

"They're fine, thankfully," Asuka said. "But don't you get it? Hikari is Mana's friend, too. That robot thing probably kidnapped them because it knew Mana would come for them."

"You think that whoever's after Mana can have _killer robots_ made just to catch her?" Shinji asked, his eyes wide.

"Well, why else would it kidnap Hikari and her sister?" Asuka asked. "Her father's not rich or anything."

"Could it have just grabbed them randomly?" Shinji suggested. "I know it's unlikely, but…"

Asuka shook her head. "I spoke to Hikari afterwards," she said. "The damn robot knew her _name_. It was after her specifically."

"Oh," Shinji said in a small voice.

"Any way you look at it, whatever organization is after Mana has some _serious_ resources to draw off of," Asuka said. "Maybe even more than Batgirl has."

Shinji stomach gave an unpleasant lurch at the idea of his new girlfriend being in such peril. "Unfortunately, I can't say I disagree with you."

"And you know what? I'm sick of being in the dark about everything," Asuka proclaimed. "I intend to find out what's going on so I can try to help her. Are you with me, Shinji?"

For a split second, the Third Child hesitated, not liking the idea of poking into the affairs of the shadowy yet extremely powerful group that was after the auburn-haired girl.

Then his resolve solidified. Nothing could be worse than just sitting around idle and worrying about Mana, utterly helpless to do anything about her predicament. Besides, he was Mana's boyfriend now. Wasn't it his duty to do what he could to protect her?

"I'm in," he said.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **And at last, we get the second half of Steel and Metallo's first confrontation. Along with a few other confrontations.

Nothing else to really say about this chapter, so thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

* * *

Omake

Unwanted Upgrades

"And you know what? I'm sick of being in the dark about everything," Asuka proclaimed. "I intend to find out what's going on so I can try to help her. Are you with me, Shinji?"

For a split second, the Third Child hesitated, not liking the idea of poking into the affairs of the shadowy yet extremely powerful group that was after the auburn-haired girl.

Then his resolve solidified. Nothing could be worse than just sitting around idle and worrying about Mana, utterly helpless to do anything about her predicament. Besides, he was Mana's boyfriend now. Wasn't it his duty to do what he could to protect her?

"I'm in," he said. "…but you know, I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to be useful in this quest."

"Yeah," Asuka agreed, stroking her chin. "You could really use some super powers."

"Hey, how it about, author?" Shinji called. "Can I _finally_ get some super powers here, please?"

There was a flash of light, and suddenly Shinji was clad in a maroon and yellow costume, holding…a glue gun.

"What the—?! Paste Pot Pete?! Really?" Shinji exclaimed, while Asuka snickered, stifling a full blown gale of laughter. "C'mon, something better please!"

There was another flash, and this time Shinji found himself with…buck teeth and a big, poofy tail.

He let out a cry of frustration as Asuka finally erupted into a fit of giggles.

"_Squirrel Boy?!_ Really!?"

"I think…I think you'd…better give it up, Shinji," Asuka forced out between guffaws. "You're not getting any good powers out this, obviously."

"Fine," the Third Child groaned.

There was a final flash of light, and Shinji was restored to normal.

"Tell me," the pilot of Unit One grumbled, "was giving me my ghost powers from 'Shinji Ikiryo' too obvious?"


	11. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Ten:** Family Matters

Walking around the schoolyard in search of his friends after dismissal, Shinji felt almost absurdly nervous.

There was no good reason for him to be feeling like this, of course. It wasn't as though he had any reason to believe that he was in immediate danger, nor did he have anything even remotely incriminating on him.

Nevertheless, he couldn't shake the feeling.

"Hey, guys," he greeted his two friends, finding them chatting underneath the shade of a leafy oak at the corner of the yard.

"Oh, hi, Shinji, what's up?" Kensuke greeted him cheerfully.

"Um, can I talk to you guys?" he asked nervously.

Toji frowned slightly, obviously sensing that this was pretty serious. "Of course, Shin-man," he said.

"Not here," Shinji said, looking around at the other students milling around. "Maybe someplace a little more private?"

Toji and Kensuke traded a look.

"Of course," the otaku said. "C'mon, Shinji. Step into our office."

The boys' "office" turned out to be an out-of-the-way little area behind the school building. Shinji almost instantly realized that this was where they'd operated their little photo business, but he didn't say anything about that. Demand for the photos of Asuka had dried up long ago, if only because everybody who wanted one already had one, so none of their former customers were likely to stop by.

"So, what's up, Shinji?" Toji asked.

"I need your help," the Third Child blurted out.

"Of course," Kensuke said. "With what? Maybe some kind of top secret NERV mission?"

Shinji sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Actually, you're not too far off…" he said quietly.

Kensuke nearly did a double take. "Okay, now you've got my interest," he said. "C'mon, Shinji, spill. What's up?"

"Okay, okay," the Third Child said. "But you guys have to promise to keep all this a secret, all right? It's really important. Life or death important."

This somber warning seemed to mute even Kensuke's enthusiasm by at least a little bit, but neither of his friends looked like they were having second thoughts. Both of them quickly promised to keep their mouths shut.

"All right, well, the first thing you need to know is…Mana is Steel," he said in barely more than a whisper.

"No way!" Toji exclaimed. "_That's_ where she's been all this time?!"

"It kinda makes sense, actually," Kensuke said, much more quietly. "I mean, Steel's been on this crusade to hurt the Light of the Divine, and who has a bigger axe to grind with them than Kirishima?"

"It's a lot more complicated, unfortunately," Shinji said softly. "There are worse people than the Light of the Divine after her."

"What do you mean?" Kensuke asked.

Shinji looked around one more time, just to be extra sure no one else was within earshot. Then he started to tell his friends the whole story about the predicament Mana had found herself trapped in.

"So, wait a second," Kensuke said as the EVA pilot finished. "You're telling me that the ones who attacked Kirishima's mom were really from some evil, secret conspiracy, and that they just dressed like the Light of the Divine to throw people off their trail? And that Kirishima has now been taken in by Batgirl, who helped her build a new and even more destructive suit of power armor than she had before? And that she's going to use it to fight both this conspiracy and the real Light of the Divine, since that's what Batgirl wants? Oh yeah, and the conspiracy sent a killer robot after her?"

"Yes," Shinji answered. "And keep your voice down."

"Dude, that's _awesome_," Kensuke breathed.

"No, it's not!" Shinji hissed, at the same time that Toji gave the bespectacled boy a smack upside the head. "Mana's in serious trouble. She can't walk around outside like a normal person because she might be kidnapped or even shot if she tries it!"

"Okay, okay, sorry," Kensuke said contritely, even as he rubbed the back of his head and gave the jock a dirty look.

"This is interesting stuff, Shinji, but I still don't see what you need our help for," Toji pointed out.

"Well, I want to help Mana however I can," Shinji said. "So I figure a good first step is to figure out what this conspiracy actually is. But I kinda hit a dead end there."

Kensuke looked more than ready to agree, but Toji held up a hand to stop him. "Shinji, no offense, but do you really think we can do anything that Batgirl can't?"

"I don't know. Maybe not," he admitted. "But I have to try to help."

"Okay…mind if I ask why?" Toji said, scratching his head. "I mean, I woulda thought you felt you already had enough danger in your life. I get wanting to help a friend and stuff, but that's pretty far to go."

"It's more than that," Shinji said, feeling his face heat slightly. "Mana's my girlfriend."

Both Toji and Kensuke started, looking more surprised by that piece of information than they had been by the rest of Shinji's story.

"Since when?" Kensuke demanded.

"Um, well, Batgirl took me to her hideout after Mana disappeared—"

_"You got to see Batgirl's hideout?!"_ Kensuke exclaimed in a high-pitched, almost strangled voice, as though his excitement was so great that it barely allowed him to breathe.

"Yeah, but I didn't get a good look at it, and she gave me some stuff to knock me out before she took me there, so I wouldn't see how to get there," Shinji said. "Anyway, Batgirl took me to her hideout so I could see Mana, and it…happened then." He finished lamely, not wanting to go into detail about his and Mana's first kiss.

Toji and Kensuke were silent for a moment, digesting this new bit of information about their friend.

"Well, congrats, man," the jock eventually spoke up. "Kirishima's a nice girl. Cute, too. 'Course, if I'd been in your shoes, I woulda gone for Misato." He added with a smirk.

Shinji smiled wryly. "Of course you would have," he said, not bothering to mention what he would've rated Toji's chances of that at. He quickly sobered, though. "So, do you see why I have to do this? My girlfriend's stuck in this awful situation. I'll understand if you don't want to get involved, but—"

"I'll help," Toji interrupted him.

"You will?"

The jock nodded. "Of course," he said, then smirked. "Hell, if the situation was reversed and there was a good looking girl who liked _me_ in trouble, I know I'd want your help!"

"Thanks," Shinji smiled, then turned to Kensuke. "What about you?" he asked, a bit anxiously.

The way Toji freely offered his help meant a lot to Shinji, but it was the otaku's assistance that he was really after. Shinji suspected that Kensuke would have a few ideas about how to investigate the shadowy cabal that had made Mana's life a misery.

So he was relieved when Kensuke grinned.

"You even have to ask?" the bespectacled boy chuckled. "You couldn't keep me away from _this_ if you tried!"

* * *

"You know, Ikari, I have to hand it to you," Metallo said with grudging respect. "You sure know how to build something nasty."

The Commander and the cyborg were down in Terminal Dogma, which had effectively become Metallo's home, much to his displeasure. The metal man, who was still missing an arm after his battle with Steel, was looking over a series of design specs that the Commander had brought down.

"Doctor Akagi was the one who actually created the designs," Gendo said. His tone was less of modesty and more of someone correcting a rather slow individual.

"Of course, but the general concept was your brainchild, wasn't it?" Metallo pressed.

"Yes," Gendo admitted. He was barely paying attention to the metal man, instead focusing mainly on a simple desktop computer he kept down in Terminal Dogma, presumably for very sensitive material. "It seemed like the only way to enhance your abilities enough to defeat Steel with the current technology NERV has at its disposal."

"And it'll actually work?" the machine man asked.

"Dr. Akagi has assured me that all the underlying theories are sound," was all the Commander would commit to on that front.

Metallo grunted. "Yes, well, if she says so, then I'm sure they are," he muttered. "Still, I'm sure it'll take some time to build all this, especially considering that it has to be done quietly."

"Indeed," Gendo said, and now the Commander was starting to sound impatient with the metal man. Clearly, showing Metallo the plans for his upgrades had not been his primary purpose for coming down to Terminal Dogma. "The estimated time to completion is four weeks, and I'm told that that is an optimistic projection. Two months is more realistic."

There was a note of warning in Ikari's voice, but Metallo couldn't find it within himself to care. The Commander left him in this glorified basement most of the time, so he could damn well make conversation with him when he came down here.

"That's quite a long time," he remarked. "A lot could change in a month or two."

"Indeed." Ikari grunted.

"Wouldn't it be better to just get what we want without all that trouble?" Metallo asked conversationally.

That finally did it; Ikari at least turned his gaze away from his computer screen and back to Metallo.

"I take it you have something in mind, then?" Gendo asked, his tone almost sardonic.

"I might have come up with something," Metallo drawled. "Being down here for so long gives me time to think."

"Tell me," Ikari commanded.

Despite his own inclinations, Metallo could not refuse a direct order from the Commander.

"It occurred to me that Kirishima's mother still has to be out there _somewhere,_ unless she died, of course," Metallo said.

Gendo Ikari did not stoop to doing something as undignified as rolling his eyes, and yet somehow the disdain seemed to roll off of him in waves, anyway. "I am aware of that," he said. "However, she has disappeared."

"I know," Metallo said, "but she was so badly injured, she needs to be in a hospital, or she'll probably die. Probably Batgirl has her checked into one under a false name. But NERV has the biggest supercomputer in the world, and last I checked, Akagi doesn't have too many scruples about hacking other people's databases. How hard could it be to go through all the local hospitals' patient profiles and find the phony one?"

Ikari regarded him for several long seconds with narrowed eyes, his opinion on Metallo's plan—whatever it might've been—was utterly inscrutable.

Finally, he spoke. "I will have Dr. Akagi look into the idea," he said. "Now, leave me alone. I have work to do."

With his mechanical parts and software leaving him no choice but to obey, Metallo wandered off into the darkness of Terminal Dogma, grumbling softly to himself.

* * *

"God damn you, you metal monster!" the white-clad cultist screamed, while over two dozen of his fellows pointed high powered rifles at her. "We'll destroy you if it's the last thing we ever do!"

_Man, this is really getting monotonous,_ Steel mused as she gazed dispassionately down the multiple gun barrels directed at her.

Not bothering to deign the cultists with some pithy remark, she advanced toward them, and they immediately opened fire on her, the bullets bouncing off her armor like big, loud hailstones. She barely felt the impacts at all through her metal suit.

Not that the complete failure of the gunfire to so much as stagger her gave the cultists pause. If anything, they only fired at her more quickly, as if hoping that just _one more_ bullet would be enough to take her down. Dimly, she wondered if Asuka had to put up with this kind of thing.

"Tell me," she spoke as she finally got within arm's reach of the cultists, wrenching the guns out of their hands and crushing the weapons in her mechanized gauntlets, "do you think that the 237th round will be the charm, or are you just so freaked out that you you're not thinking at all?"

The white-cloaked zealots responded by throwing themselves at her, and Steel backhanded one, sending him flying across the room.

"Definitely the second one, then," she decided aloud, trying not to sound as bored as she felt.

She had almost lost count of the number of times she had done this, locating and assaulting one of the Light of the Divine's hidey-holes, destroying any stockpiled weapons they might have, and then leaving before the police could respond to the commotion.

It was becoming positively routine, and when she thought back to her first attack on the cult, Steel could barely believe how terrified she'd been back then. It seemed like that had happened years ago.

"Die, monster!"

Something hit Steel in the back with enough force to send her staggering forward a few steps, and the assembled cultists cheered at the minor victory.

However, the girl in the metal suit quickly recovered her balance and whirled around to see still another cultist, this one wielding a sledgehammer. Realizing how briefly he had managed to faze her, the man quickly swung the impromptu weapon again, this time aiming for her head.

Steel brought up her own much larger hammer, handily blocking the strike.

"Mine is bigger than yours," she said, smirking beneath her helmet.

Scowling, the cultist tried to pull back so he could attempt another swing, but Steel didn't give him the chance, wrenching the sledgehammer out of his hand and then giving him a hard push so he toppled over onto his rear. Attaching her own hammer to the magnetic plate on her back, Steel took the wooden handle of the cultist's improvised weapon in both hands and easily snapped it in two.

The sound of sirens could easily be heard outside now; clearly, all the gunfire had gotten people to call the police. Even in the worst parts of the city, machine gun fire was hardly the norm, and they weren't in the worst part of the city.

"Sounds like my cue to exit," Steel said.

One of the cultists tried to stop her as she made her way toward the door she had destroyed entering their not so secret sanctum, leaping onto her back and grabbing hold of her, as though his weight would be enough to slow her down.

She casually reached back, grabbed hold of the voluminous white robe he wore, and then pulled the man off of her, holding him up before her like a mother cat holding a kitten by the scruff of its neck.

"Really?" she asked.

The white robed man actually had the good grace to look embarrassed before she dropped him unceremoniously to the floor and made her escape.

Once she was in the air, Steel made a point of taking the long way back to the Batcave's secret entrance, treasuring her time out in the sunshine, even if her whole body was encased in her metallic armor.

Even though she was still quite aware of how generous Mayumi had been with her, Steel had to admit that her agreement with the Batgirl was seriously starting to chafe. She hated living like a mole, always trapped underground or inside, and only getting to venture out on one of these now tedious missions.

Yet however tempting it might've been to go pay Shinji a visit or go on another excursion before she went back, she knew better than to try the dark lady's patience further. With a heavy sigh, she returned to the Batcave.

"There you are," Mayumi said as she entered. "I was afraid you'd decided to go on another detour after dealing with that cell."

"Well, nice to see you, too," Mana replied as she removed her helmet.

"Don't make jokes," the raven haired girl snapped at her. "You're getting very sloppy out there."

The auburn-haired girl frowned as she stepped into her box frame and started to shed her armor entirely. "How would you even know?" she asked. "I haven't told you anything about it yet."

Wordlessly, Mayumi typed in a command, and a video of Mana's recent encounter with the Light of the Divine started to play out on the Batcomputer's large main screen, all from Mana's own viewpoint.

"You put a camera into my armor?" the auburn-haired girl demanded, indignant.

"I put a lot of things in your armor," Mayumi answered.

"What…you…how…?" Mana sputtered, caught between fury, disbelief, and confusion.

"You're getting too arrogant," Mayumi continued, ignoring the other girl's reaction. "In this business, overconfidence is a good way to get killed."

"You know, you can demand I meet your standards all you want, but it's not going to happen, because your standards are insane," Mana retorted. "And anyway, it's not like those losers ever had any real chance against me."

"Those losers may still have Toastmasters and several doses of tar," the bespectacled girl said gruffly.

"If they do, then why haven't they used any of that while I've been tearing apart their doomed organization?" Mana argued. "The Light's in a death spiral, so why can't I focus on NERV instead?"

"There's a big difference between NERV and that cult. Dealing with them will require a much more deft touch," Mayumi replied. "Also because I said so."

Mana scowled. "Fine. I'm going to take a shower."

Mayumi grunted as the other girl headed for the stairs.

* * *

The desert was an inferno.

The Nevada desert had always been hot, of course, but it had grown even more scorching since the Second Impact had altered the world's climate. Many of the species that had once managed to eke out an existence in the area had been driven to extinction by the even greater temperatures and increased paucity of water. As a result, the dessert was quieter than it had been; for the most part, only the occasional hot, dry wind created any sound.

Well, the occasional wind and the rather sizable NERV base which was smack dab in the middle of the arid, dusty nowhere.

That day, the American NERV base, which was also known as the Second Branch, was bustling with activity. The reason for all of it was simple.

After months of work studying the S2 organ that NERV Central had retrieved from the Fourth Angel, and even more months of work to get it installed into Unit Four, the time had finally come to activate the damn thing and see if it worked.

If the test was successful, it would mark a major milestone in the understanding of Angelic biology, as well as open up scores of opportunities for new tactics for fighting the war. If the Evangelions no longer needed power cords in order to be able to function for more than five minutes at a time, it would allow NERV to completely rewrite their playbook for the better.

So, with all these thoughts in his mind, along with visions of personal glory, floating in his head, the Commander of the Second Branch ordered one of his underlings to flip the switch.

Exactly 1.278 seconds later, the world of every soldier, scientist, and salary man in the base turned _red_.

* * *

**Run Search: Hamilton Kidnapping Berlin Germany**

** Searching…**

** 6 articles found**

"So, what's it say?" Shinji asked, peering over Kensuke's shoulder at his computer screen.

The Third Child and his two best friends were currently sitting in Kensuke's room, doing hopefully important research. Shinji had volunteered his own living space and laptop for the job, but the otaku had proclaimed that the odds of the Evangelion pilot's computer being bugged by their enemies was far too high and had insisted they use his instead.

Shinji didn't see how that could be, and normally he would've thought Kensuke was being a paranoid nut for believing it.

However…well, they _were_ investigating a shadowy and powerful secret organization after all.

"Hmm," Kensuke hummed thoughtfully to himself as he quickly skimmed the articles. "Seems pretty straightforward. Emil Hamilton was some scientist living in Berlin when he disappeared a little while back. The police found clear signs of forced entry at his home, but the kidnappers haven't made any demands or anything. In fact, it seems like there isn't anybody to make an demands _to_. The guy doesn't have any family, rich or otherwise."

"And?" Shinji asked.

"And that's it," Kensuke said.

"What?" the Third Child blinked, surprised. "There isn't any more?"

"Yeah. I mean, what did you expect?" the otaku shrugged. "There haven't been any new developments, and the guy doesn't have family to do tearful interviews about how much they miss him. The story fell off the news cycle and never got back on."

"I was sure there would be more," Shinji muttered, gazing at Kensuke's monitor with narrowed eyes, as though there was some clue there waiting for him, if only he could figure it out.

Toji, who had been silently admiring the posters of bikini models that covered one of Kensuke's walls, finally turned his full attention to the conversation. "I still don't get why you're so sure the people who kidnapped this guy are the same ones harassing Kirishima," he said.

Shinji grimaced a little before he managed to school his features. He had rather hoped to avoid this particular topic. "Asuka told me," he said.

"Wait a minute, what's the devil got to do with this?" Toji demanded.

"Yeah, you never mentioned her," Kensuke added, frowning.

"She's also helping Mana," Shinji said, "or at least, she's trying to figure out how to help Mana, like us. She was the one who gave me this lead."

"And where did she get it from?" Toji asked, scowling.

"I don't know. She didn't tell me," the EVA pilot admitted.

"Then how do you know she's not just messing with you?" Toji asked, clearly not about to trust anything that came from the Second Child.

"Look, Toji, I know you don't like Asuka, but she wouldn't do that," Shinji said. When the jock clearly remained skeptical, he added, "It's not her style to play that kind of trick. And anyway, she's a friend of Mana's, too."

It struck him then that he almost certainly would never have been able to call the beautiful auburn-haired young woman his girlfriend if Asuka hadn't sent him to do something nice for her in her stead, right after Mana's mother had been attacked.

He never had learned why Asuka had been so unnerved by what had happened that she'd felt unable to do something nice for Mana herself. For better or for worse, the redhead had her secrets, and she wouldn't part with them easily.

"If this lead's legit, then why didn't she explain where it came from to you?" the jock continued to press.

"I don't know. Look, I trust her on this one, but if you don't, then please go ahead and get her to explain to you where she got this information, if you can," Shinji said, annoyed. "I sure won't stop you from trying."

Toji recoiled slightly, unused to seeing Shinji so openly display irritation. "Okay, okay, sorry," he said. "I'm just leery of information from, you know, the devil."

"I understand, but I'm not," Shinji said evenly. "Besides, it's pretty much all we have to go off of."

"And even then, it doesn't tell us much," Kensuke said, rejoining the conversation.

"I'm not sure it tells us anything," Toji said bluntly.

"On the contrary, my good Suzuhara," the otaku said, adopting what he probably thought was a scholarly tone as he took off his glasses and gave them a quick polish. "Even though we don't know very much, we can still deduce a few things."

"Like what, genius?" Toji asked.

"Well," Kensuke began, "if we assume that the Red Devil was in fact telling the truth and not mistaken about this Hamilton guy's kidnapping being done by the same people, then that means that this organization is international in scope. And if it can build a dangerous, humanoid robot, then it's got a lot of resources at its disposal, along with access to some very high technology. Stuff that's definitely not on the market yet. That narrows things down a bit."

"So we're fighting the UN?" Toji asked sarcastically.

"I doubt it," Kensuke said, looking annoyed at the jock's dismissal of what he'd worked out so far.

"Not a whole lot of other groups around that fit the bill," the jock countered.

"It's still a good start," Shinji said, looking to avert the argument that seemed to be brewing, "but we'll need to figure out a lot more."

"Well, I'll research this Hamilton guy and the circumstances more closely. Maybe there's some piece of information I'm missing," Kensuke said. "But it's likely that we just don't have enough of the facts to figure out anymore than we have already."

Shinji nodded. "I understand."

He didn't like it, though, especially since he had feeling that he wouldn't be getting more information any time soon. Or, even worse, if he did, he felt pretty sure it would be a result of Mana getting involved in a very dangerous—and public—situation.

Toji, meanwhile, was obviously still skeptical of the idea that the three of them had any real chance of puzzling out who the people behind the attacks on Mana and her mother actually were.

"Well, I gotta go," he announced, getting up. "I have an appointment to keep."

"What appointment?" Kensuke asked, frowning in confusion.

"I'm going to go see my sister," Toji said.

The trio of boys immediately grew quiet. Shinji grimaced and diverted his gaze, not able to make himself look at the jock.

Kensuke coughed uncomfortably. "Have a good visit," he said.

"Right. Thanks," Toji said, making a hasty retreat.

In a few moments he had escaped from the Aida household and the awkward moment he had inadvertently created. The jock released a gusty sigh of relief as he stepped out into the sunshine.

He didn't hold what had happened to his sister against Shinji anymore, and he had no desire to inflict guilt upon his friend. It just…happened sometime.

_Sis is always the elephant in the room whenever I hang with Shinji,_ Toji mused to himself as he hopped a bus to take him to the hospital.

If only she'd get better, he thought as he stared out the window of the bus without really seeing anything, then everybody would be happy.

Eventually arriving at the hospital, Toji walked inside and quickly got his visitor's tag—by now all the staff recognized him and started to get it ready as soon as they saw him—and rode the elevator up to his sister's room.

He wasn't surprised to find her asleep when he entered. She'd been sleeping a lot lately. With a sigh, he sat down in the chair next to her bed, content to wait.

* * *

The mission was simple, Sato told himself as he and a handful of Section Two agents approached the hospital, all dressed in street clothes.

Ikari had somehow managed to track down the whereabouts of the elder Kirishima woman, the one who had more or less started the whole mess that had led to Chiron's unseemly demise. She was currently checked into the hospital under an alias, and according to illegally obtained hospital records, she had yet to regain consciousness.

The plan was that they'd enter the hospital posing as family members of hers coming in for a visit. Sato was currently holding a large box covered in wrapping paper, and the "present" actually contained several sets of scrubs. Once inside Kirishima's room, they would change, and, posing as doctors, smuggle the woman out of the hospital.

Once the elder Kirishima was safely in NERV headquarters, their Steel problem would quickly go away.

So, by all indications it would be easy to get in and easy to get out. It was a textbook milk run of a mission.

However, it was also Sato's first time leading such a mission; Chiron had usually insisted on commanding the cloak-and-dagger operations himself, claiming that most members of Section Two couldn't be counted on to display even the barest flicker of competence.

The newly minted department chief was about to discover just how right his predecessor had been.

"Hello," the lady as the front desk greeted them politely as they approached, "how may I help you gentlemen?"

"We're here to visit Kamiko Fujimoto, please," Sato replied with a pleasant smile, providing Kirishimia's alias.

"Are you family members?" the front desk lady asked.

"We're her brothers," Sato said, then at her look of mild surprise, he added, "Big family."

He smiled in a way that suggested he'd said that to a lot of people over the years.

"I see," the front desk lady said, disarmed. "Well, if I could just have some identification, I can have you all on your way."

"Of course."

Sato and the members of his team handed over their excellent fake IDs, which of course gave them each the Fujimoto name, and the front desk lady gave them all a cursory examination.

"Everything seems to be in order," she said, handing over several clip-on visitor badges for them. "Please, enjoy your visit."

"Thank you," Sato said.

He and his team headed toward a nearby elevator, and that's when everything went wrong.

There was a metal detector at the doorway that led from the lobby to the hospital proper. It wasn't concealed; in fact, there were signs posted telling people about it. Yet despite that, the moment it went off, Sato _knew_ that at least one member of his team had blithely walked through it while carrying a pistol on him, even though they weren't supposed to be armed at the moment.

Still, the situation wasn't unsalvageable. The sleepy looking security guard posted there didn't bat an eye when the machine released its loud, obnoxious beep. Clearly, people set the thing off all the time. They really wouldn't have needed to be all that slick to get him to just wave them through.

However, the armed agent's response was the exact opposite of slick. The second the security guard moved, he drew his weapon and shot the man twice in the gut. The report was thunderous inside the lobby.

There was no way to mistake the gunshot for anything else, and screams sounded through the lobby as people panicked, diving for cover.

"_Move!_" Sato roared, reaching a snap decision not to call the mission a failure right there.

It took him a few more seconds to decide to beat the crap out of his team later, assuming they all lived through this experience and escaped.

Sato only became further convinced that the latter decision was the correct one when one of the other agents actually moved toward the elevator.

"Not that way, idiot!" Sato barked. "They'll turn the damn thing off while we're in it! This way!"

He ran into one of the stairwells, taking the steps three at a time as he sprinted upwards, knowing that they probably had only minutes before hospital security could respond to the invasion.

* * *

Meanwhile, Steel was flying through the air over Tokyo-3, en route to yet another boring raid on the Light of the Divine. She had almost reached her destination when the receiver in her helmet abruptly crackled to life.

"Steel, it's me," Mayumi's voice spoke.

The girl in the metal suit held back a sigh, wondering what Mayumi was about to criticize her about. She hadn't even started her mission yet, after all.

"Yes, what is it?" she asked.

"There's an incident unfolding at Tokyo-3 Memorial Hospital," Mayumi answered, and Steel's eyes immediately widened behind her helmet. That was the hospital where they were keeping her mother. "I don't have all the details yet, but shots have been fired. You can get there long before I can."

"I'm on it," Steel replied, terminating the connection.

A quick command from her immediately put a blinking cursor on her HUD, pointing her in the direction of her new destination.

"Maximum thrust," she ordered her suit, and immediately the flames erupting from the bottom of her boots increased in intensity, propelling her forward much more quickly. "Afterburners on!"

The shock wave she generated shattered windows in several of the skyscrapers near her, but Steel couldn't be bothered to care.

* * *

"Come on, move it, move it!" Sato hissed as he finally reached the hospital's sixth floor, with the rest of his team behind him.

Several of them were gasping for breath, he noted with disdain. Sato himself was sweating, but he had too much adrenaline surging through his system to even imagine feeling tired.

Opening the door that led from the stairwell to the hallway, he allowed himself to feel some cautious optimism. No one was there, never mind any security guards. With luck, they had managed to get off the radar for a moment. If they were truly fortunate, they'd be able to get to Kirishima's room, change, and slip out, with no one realizing they were the gunmen from downstairs until it was too late.

"Move," he growled at them, "and Eiji, put that damn gun away, already. We don't need to be seen with it."

Eiji actually had the nerve to look annoyed about the order, but he obeyed and slipped the weapon back into his jacket.

_I am having this idiot transferred to the most miserable position I can find as soon as this over,_ Sato thought.

Leading the rest of his team, Sato advanced down the hall, moving quickly but trying to look at least a little nonchalant. Mercifully, it took him only seconds to locate the room where Kirishima was supposed to be staying. Luck really was with them, it seemed.

With a quick glance down both ends of the hallway, Sato opened the door to the room, and he and the other agents filed inside.

Sure enough, a pale, unconscious woman was laying in one of the room's two beds, a white bandage wrapped around her head and an IV tube going into her arm. The other bed was concealed by the privacy curtain, but Sato paid it no mind.

Or at least he didn't until the curtain was moved aside, revealing Steel's unmistakable armored form. Feeling his blood turn to ice in his veins, Sato belatedly noted just how large the room's window was.

"You really shouldn't have done this," Steel said.

She raised her arm, and several rivets burst out of the weapon on her forearm. Her grace was uncanny; she managed to pin Eiji through the wall by his clothes, but judging by the lack of blood and screaming, she hadn't hurt him at all.

"Run!" Sato commanded, not thinking twice about abandoning Eiji.

The other members of his team apparently didn't suffer from any bouts of conscience over that, either, because they didn't hesitate to head for the door. Even so, Steel easily managed to stop another of their number with that rivet trick.

_Damn it,_ Sato thought, not seeing how they could possibly escape from this one now.

Yet fortune hadn't abandoned them yet, at least not completely. Steel quickly raced to pursue them, moving with surprising speed for someone in such bulky armor, but the shoulders on her suit proved too wide to easily get through the hospital room's fairly narrow doorway. It would take her only seconds to break the frame and brute force her way through, but the delay bought them a few precious seconds.

_Now what?_ He thought, looking frantically around, as though the perfect escape route might present itself.

The elevators were still too big a risk, but the stairwell wasn't an option, either; against an enemy capable of vertical flight or descent, there was no real hope of escape in such a place. They could try to hide, but the fact was that there weren't very many good spots for a group of grown men to do that.

_We need a hostage,_ he decided, not the least bit happy about it.

Taking hostages was a messy business at the best of times, and it was damn hard to make it end well. However, he really couldn't think of anything that would keep them from getting caught by Steel for even a little bit longer.

Picking a door to a patient room at random, Sato opened it and barged inside, the remaining members of his team following him.

"Who the hell are you guys?" a kid in a black tracksuit demanded, jumping out of one of the visitor chairs and walking up to him.

Sato immediately sized the kid up, ignoring his outburst. He looked like he was in his early teens, but he was pretty tall and broad-shouldered for his age. Clearly not one of the patients, he wasn't an ideal hostage in this situation.

The little girl in the nearby bed, however….

"Hey, what are you—?!" the kid sputtered in indignation as Sato wordlessly reached out and pushed him hard, sending him falling onto his rear end.

Then he went over to the little and none too gently pulled out her IV line. The boy released a wordless cry of anger and indignation as he saw what they were doing.

Sato had just liberated her from her bed when Steel arrived, reducing the room's doorframe to splinters as she charged inside.

"Stop right there, bitch," Sato said, holding up the little girl's unconscious form for Steel to see.

The girl in the metal suit came to an abrupt halt. It was impossible to read her expression with the way her helmet covered her face, but Sato thought he saw uncertainty in her posture.

"So, here's the deal," Sato said. "You help us get out of here, or I kill the injured girl."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** The Suzuhara family just has the worst luck, don't they?

I don't really have a whole lot of comments to make on this chapter, to be honest, so thanks as always to my readers and reviewers.

Now for some fun.

* * *

Omake!

Unwanted Extras

"You put a camera into my armor?" the auburn-haired girl demanded, indignant.

"I put a lot of things in your armor," Mayumi answered.

"Such as?" Mana demanded.

"Well, there's the kill switch, for one thing," the raven-haired girl drawled.

"Kill switch?!" Mana shrilled. "What kill—?"

The armored girl's next words were lost as Mayumi hit a button and the microphone in her helmet, along with every other part of her mechanized armor, abruptly went dead. Steel stood there, as still as a statue and almost as silent; Mana's indignant exclamations from within were badly muffled.

Eventually, Mayumi hit the button, and Steel lurched back into motion.

"That—!"

"There's also a device to give the wearer a mild shock," Mayumi interrupted, pressing another button.

Mana let out a cry of pain. "I swear, I don't care how elaborate a doomsday device would need to be to get the better of you," she growled. "You push that button again, and I won't rest until—"

"Then there's the ejection switch…" Mayumi continued.

Mana gulped. "Ejection switch?"

Mayumi hit the last button, and the Steel armor appeared to somehow spit out the auburn haired girl wearing it. Mana screamed as she sailed across the dark lady's underground lair, landing perfectly on a strategically placed blue mat.

"Wha…?" Mana muttered dazedly, looking at the mat with disbelief. "How…? Don't tell me you _planned_ all this!" she exclaimed incredulously.

The raven haired girl smiled smugly. "Mana, I'm the Batgirl," she said. "I've planned _everything_."


	12. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Eleven:** Hostage Situation

"So here's the deal. You help me get out of here, or I kill the injured girl."

Steel stopped in her tracks the moment the man in the black suit spoke those words. When she had sped over to the hospital in order to prevent NERV from getting a hold of her mother, she known that the possibility of something extremely unpleasant happening existed. However, once she'd managed to beat the NERV agents to their target, she hadn't dreamed that one of them would take another patient hostage.

Nor would she have ever imagined that patient would be Toji Suzuhara's injured little sister, she thought, glancing briefly at the jock who was standing nearby, visibly shaking with impotent rage at what the man in the black suit was doing.

Steel was very glad then that the helmet she wore concealed her entire head, because there was no way she could maintain any kind of poker face in _this_ situation.

"Put the girl down," Steel ordered, trying to sound stern, rather panicky and nauseous.

"No," the man in the black suit growled. "You help me get out of this mess, or I kill the girl. End of story."

"How do you think this is gonna end for you?" Steel demanded. "You're not the first idiot to get himself into a tight spot and try something like this. You ever hear of a time when it went well for the hostage taker?"

"No," the man in the black suit responded, "but this is going to be _different_ from all those times."

"And what makes you think that, big man?" Steel sneered, or tried to sneer anyway.

Her heart was pounding so heavily in her chest that she was surprised she couldn't hear it echoing inside the confines of her armor. She had never had all that much to do with Toji Suzuhara before, but she knew he was a good friend of Shinji's, and she really didn't want his little sister to be hurt.

Of course, Steel wouldn't have wanted the little girl to get hurt even if she'd had no idea who she was. The young child looked so innocent and vulnerable, and the bandages wrapped around much of her form were a silent testimony to the injuries she'd suffered in the past. Obviously she had already endured more than a child ever should.

"This time is going to be different because the great and powerful hero Steel is going to be escorting me to safety," the man in the black suit boasted.

"You've got to be kidding!" Steel exclaimed, more surprised than angry by the absurd idea.

"I am not," the NERV goon growled. "You're going to help me get out of this mess, or I'm going to kill this girl."

Steel hesitated, glaring daggers at the man even though she knew that her mask presented him with an expressionless visage. Much as she feared for the little girl's safety, she really didn't want to help one of her mother's would-be kidnappers escape from justice.

"I'm already in real deep, so I have nothing to lose," the man said, all but caressing the little girl's delicate throat. There was no doubt that he could easily snap her neck in an instant. "Killing this kid or not would be the difference between one life sentence or two."

Steel glanced at Toji. The big tough jock looked nothing short of stricken to see his little sister trapped in the grip of the obviously desperate and violent man.

"Fine," she practically snarled. "Let's go. And if she dies—"

"I die?" the NERV agent asked, looking practically amused by the clichéd threat she was about to deliver.

"No, but I'll make you wish you were dead," Steel retorted. "I think I'll start by taking my hammer and shoving it where the sun doesn't shine."

"I get the point," the man in the black suit said, looking just a tad unnerved, much to her satisfaction. "Now let's go."

"H-Hey," Toji said uncertainly, and the armored superwoman turned to look at him. "Don't let anything happen to my sister."

"I won't," she vowed, even though she didn't feel at all certain that she could keep that promise.

He nodded, and even though he looked a little green around the gills, he made no move to stop her and the NERV thug carrying his sister.

_At least the kid is unconscious,_ Steel thought grimly, hoping that whatever sedative they had dosed her with for whatever reason would last. _If this all works out okay, she'll wake up with no memory of this. And if it doesn't…_

That was too terrible to consider, so Steel halted that train of thought right there.

As they stepped out into the hall and headed for the stairs, they were soon confronted by a group of the hospital's security guards, all of them armed with stun guns. Steel only wished they shown up before the jerk she was now escorting had gotten it into his head to take a hostage.

"Get back!" Steel boomed, holding up one hand in a warding gesture. "He's got a hostage!"

She wasn't sure whether it was that bit of information or the sight of her metallic form that did it, but either way, the group of security guards clearly felt that the whole situation was well above their pay grade. They quickly got out of the way.

Steel moved to press the button to call the elevator, but the NERV goon stopped her.

"No," he said. "We go in there, then either they shut the thing off, or the weight of your armor is too much for it. We take the stairs."

Damn. She supposed it was silly to think that the guy might be enough of an idiot to do something so dumb, but she had still hoped.

"Fine," she said.

The two of them descended the stairs together, Steel waiting for any possible chance to snatch the little girl away from the man in the black suit. However, he remained alert and poised to snap the poor kid's fragile neck if the armored superwoman made a hostile move toward him.

When they finally reached the lobby, they found the place as quiet as a tomb, the public areas of the hospital already having been apparently evacuated. Unsurprisingly, the metal detector went absolutely ballistic as she stepped through, but Steel barely noticed. She was too busy staring at the dead security guard laying in a pool of his own blood next to it. The sight made her vaguely queasy, especially since one of the men who had done that was carrying a small child less than two steps away from her.

"Not my handiwork," the man in the black suit said, obviously aware of what she was looking at.

"You were with the guy who did this," she said accusingly.

"Guilt by association?" the man in the black suit smirked.

"You're blackmailing me into helping you escape by threatening to kill an injured child!" Steel snarled at him. "You don't get to act like it's unfair for me to think that you're scum!"

The NERV agent shrugged, looking infuriatingly unaffected by her words. "Fair enough," was all he said.

As they approached the main entrance to the hospital, the NERV agent ordered her to exit first, again demonstrating that he actually had something rather than air between his ears. It was a good, thing, too, this time, because the moment she walked through the door, there was a loud metallic _ping!_ and Steel realized it was a bullet that had bounced off her armor.

"Somehow has an itchy trigger…"

She trailed off as she took in the scene before her. There were dozens of police patrol cars parked in front of the building, with a small army of cops present, half of them keeping the growing crowd at bay while the other half faced her with guns drawn. She also quickly spotted a number of SWAT vehicles, and from there she had little difficulty picking out the men in riot gear, all of them armed with high powered rifles.

_Wow,_ she thought.

It was of course no surprise that a shooting at a hospital had incited a massive police response, but she couldn't help but be surprised at how quickly they'd all shown up. After all, even though it felt like had been hours since she'd come face to face with the NERV team in her mother's hospital room, Steel knew it had been only minutes in reality.

Both the crowd and the police hesitated as Steel stepped outside, the late day sun glinting off her armor. The superwoman was not the person anyone there had expected to see, apparently.

"Everyone hold your fire!" Steel bellowed. "He's got a hostage!"

Her shouting only generated further confusion, at least until the NERV agent finally deigned to step outside, and everyone understood. The level of tension increased instantly; Steel could feel it in the air like an electric charge.

Though the appearance of Steel had apparently caught the police by surprise, the realization that they had a hostage situation on their hands clearly did not. In only seconds, a police officer stepped forward from the line his fellows had formed, holding a bullhorn.

"This is Captain Yamaki of the T3PD!" he said. "I have been given authority to negotiate with you for the safe release of your hostage. What are your demands?"

The NERV agent completely ignored him. "I need to get out of here," he said to the superwoman. "Move them."

"What?!" Steel hissed.

"Get us out of here, or I kill the girl."

Wincing behind her helmet at this blunt declaration, the armored superwoman turned and addressed the police negotiator herself.

"He says he's gonna kill her if you don't get out of the way so we can leave!" she shouted. "You have to back off!"

The line of police didn't budge.

_"Now."_ The NERV agent hissed.

"I'm really sorry about this!" Steel said, raising her right arm.

She fired two quick volleys of her explosive rivets, deliberately striking the street a good distance away from the police line. Chunks of asphalt went flying as a thunderous bang shook the street, but no one was hurt. However, the attack had the desired effect; the police abruptly started to pull back, forcing the now frightened crowd to withdraw as well.

"Let's go," the NERV agent said, giving Steel a small push.

Reluctantly, the armored superwoman started to walk forward, noting with disgust the way the thug in the black suit held up his hostage, to ensure that it would be impossible to try and snipe him without taking the risk of killing her, too.

_God, I have to do __**something,**_ Steel thought frantically, even as she pushed police cruisers out of the way to make a path for herself and the NERV agent. _This bastard just __**can't**__ get away!_

Ideas on how to stop the jerk whirled through her head, but she rejected each one almost as soon as they came to her. They all presented too great a risk to Toji's sister. The thug in the black suit was clearly kill the innocent child at a moment's notice if need be.

"Make sure the police can't follow us," the NERV agent ordered curtly.

Scowling behind her helmet, Steel engaged her new targeting system, the one she'd installed following her battle with Metallo. It took her only a few seconds to get a lock on at least one tire of every police car in sight, and then she let her rivets fly. Instantly, the sound of air hissing out could be heard all around them.

"We need a vehicle," the agent said, as though discussing the weather. "That should do."

He pointed toward a large SWAT van, which had been spared from Steel's assault of mere moments ago because it had armored tires.

"I can't _believe_ I'm doing this…" Steel grumbled, even as she tromped over to the black vehicle and pulled open the side door, denting it slightly in the process.

She was greeted by the sight of an armored police officer, who immediately struck her over the head with his baton. The small club bounced off harmlessly.

"Sorry about this," Steel said, grabbing the guy and pulling him out of the van, laying him on the sidewalk.

"Get in," the NERV agent said gruffly as he climbed into the driver's seat, finding the keys in the ignition. "There should be enough room for you in the back."

Steel did as she was told, watching intently as the man in the black suit placed Toji's sister into the passenger seat with a casual disregard for the injured girl's comfort that made her wince. Finally, he had put her down.

_Now if only I can get her away from him, I can nail this creep,_ she thought, watching him intently.

The NERV agent had shown that he at least possessed a brain so far, which meant he _had_ to realize that she was looking for any opportunity to take his hostage from him and defuse the entire situation.

_But he's got to pay attention to the road, too,_ Steel thought as he started up the van and started to drive. _And I can't just cooperate with this guy until he escapes or hurts the kid. If I have a chance, I have to take it._

So she watched the NERV agent as he drove the SWAT vehicle out of the area around the hospital, waiting for him to be distracted for _just_ long enough…

Seconds ticked by, and Steel could feel beads of sweat forming on her brow, even though her armor's cooling systems were working perfectly. She desperately wished she could wipe them away, but she wished far more fervently that a superwoman (Mana still didn't quite count herself as one of their number, even if the _Tokyo Tattler_ did) would show up to save the day.

_Well, none of them are here right now,_ she told herself sternly. _Which means that you'll have to do._

So she waited, and hours seemed to pass as she watched for her opportunity.

Then the big van left the area that had been cordoned off by the police, and the NERV agent reached for the switch to turn the siren on.

Steel saw her chance, and she lunged. All she had to do was grab the little girl who'd been plopped into the passenger seat like she was more cargo than a person by the NERV agent, and the whole nightmare would be over. The single well dressed thug would be no match for her and her armor.

The man in the black suit turned the wheel sharply to the right just before Steel could touch Toji's sister. Tires screeched, and the armored superwoman was thrown from her feet into the side of the van with a cry of surprise, leaving a large dent in it.

"Nice try, kid," the NERV agent said, pointing a pistol that he'd apparently found somewhere in the van at Toji's sister while he steered with his remaining free hand. "But you're about ten years too young to have a chance of pulling a fast one on me."

"Go to hell," Steel growled as she pulled herself back to her feet.

"Yeah, I probably will someday," the NERV agent said mildly, as though eternal damnation was no big deal. "But for right now I'm more worried about that helicopter I hear outside. Be a dear and get rid of it, will you?"

"Are you insane?!" Steel shrilled. "Do you know how many people I'll kill if I shoot down a helicopter in the middle of a major city?!"

"You don't have to shoot them down if you don't want to," he said in a reasonable tone, as if _she_ was the one acting crazy. "Just get them to stop following us."

"You make it sound so easy," she grumbled, but she pulled open the sliding door and engaged her targeting system.

The helicopter following their stolen SWAT van looked like a news chopper, she noted, quickly spotting the camera mounted on the exterior. Firing one of her non-explosive rivets, she knocked the thing right off, hoping that the pilot would get the message and break off his pursuit.

"The sound of that thing's blades spinning aren't getting any further away!" the NERV agent called in the most obnoxious voice imaginable.

"I'll handle it!" Steel barked. "Just shut up for a second!"

With great reluctance, she took aim at the helicopter's wind shield and fired one more rivet. Almost instantly, an impressive spider web of cracks formed on the front of the tough glass, and the helicopter's course became erratic.

Steel watched with her heart in her throat as it started to descend, praying to any deity that would listen that the aircraft didn't spiral out of control and crash. She gasped as it came dangerously close to scraping the edge of one of the city's skyscrapers.

Then it managed to level out, its flight stabilizing. To her relief, it quickly turned and started off in the opposite direction. The armored superwoman let out a gusty sigh.

"That should get everybody to keep their distance. Great job," the NERV agent said. "Hey, if you're ever in need of work, look me up. My organization would be pleased to have you, I'm sure."

His joking and mockery in such a serious situation instantly sent her temper into the red zone. "I am going to hit you _so_ hard when I get the chance, your _grandchildren_ will feel it!" she roared.

"Blah, blah, blah," the man in the black suit said, clearly unfazed. "Could you quit it with the yelling? I'm busy escaping here."

"Yeah, how do you plan to do that, by the way?" Steel growled.

There was absolutely no way she would ever allow him to leave her sight with Toji's sister in his arms, but at the time same time, if he handed the little girl over to her, she wasn't going to just let him walk away, either. There was no doubt in her mind that the NERV agent realized all that, but he seemed almost sanguine, which led her to believe that he had some gambit in mind for making a clean getaway.

"I think I'll keep that my little secret for now," he said, which of course told her nothing.

For the next several minutes, the NERV agent drove like a crazy man through the streets of Tokyo-3, the flashing lights and blaring siren on the SWAT van barely giving other motorists enough warning to get out of his way.

Steel kept looking for any opportunity to get between him and Toji's sister, but the NERV agent remained wary and never let go of his stolen pistol for even a moment.

Finally, they arrived at what had to be the agent's destination, which was an area on the very outskirts of Tokyo-3 that was surrounded by a chain link fence with barbed wire strung across the top. Numerous large signs warned people not to enter in a plethora of languages.

Having read up on Tokyo-3, which was billed as the great "city of the future", upon learning that she'd be moving to the city, it took Steel only seconds to realize what the place was.

Massive mirrors constructed around the city reflected sunlight down into the Geofront during the day, making it possible for an ecosystem to thrive down in the deep cave. Of course, that could only work if there were holes in the massive plate upon which Tokyo-3 sat for the sunlight to stream through, and they had just reached one of those holes.

Steel was briefly perplexed by the NERV agent's decision to come to this place, since a jump into that hole would be suicidal for him unless he'd found a parachute in the van. However, she quickly realized that the area also had an access point into the labyrinth of maintenance tunnels that ran through the huge metal plate upon which most of Tokyo-3 stood.

_So that's his plan,_ she thought. _That'll lose the police, but what about me?_

"Get the fence," the NERV agent said as he climbed out of the van, once more taking Toji's sister into his arms.

Growling wordlessly at the casual way he was ordering her around, Steel grabbed hold of the links and tore a hole in the fence like it was no tougher than tissue paper.

"After you," she said, quiet rage dripping from every word.

The NERV agent stepped through the hole, then headed for the heavy door that led down into the bowels of the plate. "Open it," he said.

Steel barely restrained the urge to simply shove the man out of the way to get to the door, and as it was he practically had to leap back. Allowing herself to vent some of her rage on the door, she ignored the wheel on the front of it and instead ripped the thing right off its hinges with a grunt of effort.

Then she turned around and felt her stomach plunge into her boots.

The NERV agent had wandered close to the gaping hole in the plate, which was surrounded only by a short railing, and suddenly Steel knew how he intended to make his way into the interior of the plate without her following him.

"No, you wouldn't…" she breathed, horrified.

The NERV agent ignored her. "Hey, kid, catch," he said, then tossed the unconscious, injured girl into the hole.

"_No!_" Steel shrieked, diving into the hole herself after the young child.

The sunlight in the shaft was blinding, and Steel nearly crashed into the side of the tunnel, which she realized almost too late had to be made on an angle because of how thick the plate really was. Still, she pressed on, descending as quickly as the jets in her boots and gravity could propel her downwards.

_This is gonna be tricky. I have to do this just right,_ she thought, some part of her mind able to remain logical and almost detached even as her heart pounded in her ears.

She needed to escape the shaft of sunlight being beamed down into the Geofront so she could see what she was doing; at the moment, she could barely tell where Toji's sister even was. She also couldn't just hover below the girl and wait to catch her; impacting her armored form at terminal velocity would hardly be better than striking the solid ground. No, she had to catch her in such a way so as to redirect the girl's momentum without breaking her little skeleton into a thousand pieces the process.

All in the span of the few moments it would take her to plunge to the Geofront floor. Joy.

Bursting out of the sunlight, Steel came to a stop in midair, frantically blinking away spots her vision, then turned her gaze upwards. It wasn't long before she saw the small form of the little girl emerge from the shaft, bursting forth from it like it was the world's biggest (and deadliest) super slide.

Instantly, a targeting reticule appeared over the little girl on Steel's HUD. The armored superwoman, already fighting hysteria and dealing with enormous amounts of adrenaline coursing through her veins, managed to forget that her suit's targeting system couldn't fire her weapons by itself and panicked.

_Non-hostile!_ She thought as "loudly" as she could, and the A-2 connectors in her helmet quickly transmitted the command to her armor's computer, which in turn changed the little girl's classification.

The result was that the red targeting reticule vanished from her HUD, and the child became a tiny speck that Steel could barely see.

Instantly realizing her mistake, the girl in the metal suit quickly changed the child's designation once again, and the reticule quickly returned. However, even that cost her precious seconds, and she once more went into a power dive, determined to catch the girl before she hit the ground.

The ground was getting frighteningly close, but Steel ignored that, reaching out for the falling girl, still placidly sleeping.

_Come on…come on!_

She grabbed hold of Toji's sister at last, then pulled up sharply, her armor brushing against the tops of some of the trees in the Geofront. Clenching her teeth, she pressed her absurdly expensive power suit to its limits.

Finally, after what felt like forever, she managed to get some more altitude, and regain full control of her flight. Panting heavily, she hovered in midair again, taking a look down at Toji's sister. A quick scan revealed that the child hadn't sustained any new injuries from the ordeal she'd just been through.

_At least,_ she thought, heading up back toward the shaft she'd used to get into the Geofront.

As she arrived back on the ground level of Tokyo-3, Steel saw that the little girl was waking up, whatever sedative had kept her asleep for so long apparently starting to wear off at last.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she looked up at the armored superwoman with bleary eyes. "Is this a dream?" she mumbled.

_God, she's adorable,_ Steel immediately decided.

"Yes," she said. "Go back to sleep."

The kid yawned. "Okay."

And with that she instantly conked out again.

Gazing toward the open hatch that led into the bowels of the plate, Steel heaved a sigh, hating that the bastard who had casually tossed an innocent child to what would've been her doom if she hadn't intervened had escaped.

She was about to takeoff again when she heard something coming from the doorway. Turning, Steel was shocked to see the black-clad form of Batgirl walk out, dragging a very battered looking NERV agent behind her.

"Got him," was all the caped crusader said.

Steel blinked. "…how the hell did you do that?" she asked.

Batgirl gave her an irritated look, or at least, Steel assumed she did. Her mask made it difficult at best to read her expression, but her posture seemed to indicate annoyance.

Steel suspected it was the annoyance of a magician being asked to reveal the secret behind one of her tricks.

Nevertheless, Batgirl explained. "Learning about how the situation at the hospital had deteriorated was as simple as tuning into the news on the radio. After that, I used the tracker in your armor to determine where you were, and in what direction you were moving. It wasn't hard to deduce where you were going, and what he had in mind," she said, gesturing toward her prisoner. "I knew you would opt to save the girl, so I got into position to ambush him as he fled."

"You really were able to predict all that?" Steel asked.

Batgirl just nodded.

"I would be in very big trouble if I ever tried to double cross you, wouldn't I?" she asked.

"Yes," Batgirl answered simply. "Now get the girl back to where she belongs. I need to interrogate this guy before I turn him over to the police."

"…right away."

* * *

Hours later, Mayumi was sitting in the Batcave at her computer, bathed in the eerie glow of its massive screen as she worked.

She was just about to call herself finished when the sound of the cave's exterior door opening could be heard, along with the muted roar of Steel's jets. The raven haired girl didn't get up as the armored superwoman came in for a landing.

"I'm back," Steel announced, rather unnecessarily.

"So I see," Mayumi noted dryly, turning her chair around. "Took you long enough."

Removing her helmet, Mana scowled at her benefactor. "If I'd come straight here, I would've led the police and the media right to your doorstep," she said. "It's a little difficult to disappear after being at the center of something that…public."

"Not if you're well prepared," Mayumi replied.

Mana just rolled her eyes at that. "Whatever," she said. "Anyway, what happened to—?"

"I pulled some strings and had your mother quietly slipped out of the hospital and brought here," Mayumi broke in before she could finish. "She's in one of the bedrooms upstairs. Motomu can take you to see her anytime you want. There are some physicians I know who I can trust to keep quiet and refrain from asking too many questions, and I'll have them visit regularly."

"Thank you," Mana said, her shoulders slumping as the tension drained out of her body.

It had occurred to her that someone might have come for her mother, after she'd driven off the group she'd encountered. However, there hadn't been much opportunity for Mana to check on her; by the time she'd returned to the hospital to hand Toji's still sleeping sister over to the very worried jock, the military had joined the police outside the building, and they obviously weren't planning on letting her or anyone else waltz inside for a visit. Not wanting to turn the area into a war zone, she'd had no choice but to leave.

Mayumi shrugged. "Getting her out of there seemed like the sensible thing to do."

"Whatever your reason, I'm grateful," Mana said, walking over to the box frame she had set up and starting the process of shedding her armor. "By the way, I noticed that that creep isn't around…"

"I left him at the police station a while ago," Mayumi said. "It's never a good idea for me to hold onto people like him for very long, and I'd learned everything from him I was likely to, anyway."

"You didn't…you know…?" Mana trailed off awkwardly.

"Torture him? I don't do that," Mayumi said, and the auburn haired girl thought that her voice was a little colder than usual. It could be hard to tell with Mayumi, though. "Terrify him? Absolutely."

"Can't say I feel sorry for him," Mana replied, her lip curling upwards. "What did he tell you, anyway?"

"Very little we didn't already know," Mayumi answered. "It seems that NERV doesn't make a habit of trusting people like him with more information than they need in order to—"

She was cut off as her computer released a loud buzz. Immediately abandoning the conversation, Mayumi quickly turned her chair around again and started to type at her keyboard.

"What's going on?" Mana asked, walking over to her, now free of the armor.

"I have certain electronic information gathering networks set up," Mayumi said cryptically, and Mana could only imagine what _those_ networks consisted of. "But my computer isn't set to issue an alert unless something the AI deems extremely important happens…"

It only took the raven haired girl a moment longer to bring up the information. Both Mana's and Mayumi's eyes widened as they read what was on the screen.

"My god…" Mana breathed.

Mayumi's lips formed a thin line as her face took on a grim expression. "The NERV base in Nevada has been completely wiped out."

* * *

The next day found Toji Suzuhara wandering into Tokyo-3 Junior High School, looking about as tired and bedraggled as he felt, which was very.

Following the harrowing ordeal of having his sister kidnapped while he was _right there_ and yet powerless to stop it from happening, he had been subjected to a series of interviews by the T3PD and a slew of other agencies, which had lasted for hours on end. It had been the same few questions over and over again, asked by a series of men in dark suits, most of whom had a vaguely belligerent air to them, as though Toji reminded them of someone that they didn't like.

Maybe they'd dealt with a lot of teenaged punks while climbing the ranks to become detectives or something stupid like that, he mused.

"Hey, Toji!"

The tired jock looked up to see Shinji and Kensuke approaching him. Both of them had called him the previous day, probably having seen what had happened on the news, but he couldn't answer while he was with the cops. By the time he'd been free, it had been way too late to call them back.

"Hi, guys," he greeted them.

"We heard all about what happened yesterday," Shinji said.

"Is your sister okay?" Kensuke added.

The mention of the little girl who'd been so badly hurt during the First Battle of Tokyo-3 made Shinji wince, but the jock was too groggy to notice.

"Yeah, the docs were freaked out, but they checked her over, and it looks like she's fine. Or at least, no worse than she was. She probably wouldn't have been if not for Steel, though," Toji said, then looked around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping before he added, "You've got yourself a pretty badass girlfriend, Shinji."

The Third Child grinned, somehow looking bashful and a little smug at the same time. "Yeah, she's pretty great," he agreed.

Kensuke was clearly more interested in the whole event than he was in Shinji's love life. "So what exactly happened, anyway?" he asked. "I mean, we know some creep shot a guy and took your sister hostage when he tried to get away, and that Steel showed up, but nobody agrees on any of the other details."

Reluctantly, Toji relayed everything he knew about what had happened to his two friends. "And then Steel left with the bastard who grabbed my sister," he finished. "The cops told me that it looked like the jackasses were after another one of the patients, and that Steel stopped them."

Shinji frowned. "Who were they after?" he asked. "And how did Steel show up in time to stop them from getting that person?"

Toji shrugged. "I dunno. And if the cops did, they didn't tell me."

Before either of them could ask any more questions, the bell rang, signaling that the start of the school day was imminent and ending the conversation, much to Toji's relief. The three of them went to class, and almost the moment the teacher launched into his lecture, Toji put his head down onto his desk and went to sleep.

He'd fully expected the class rep to wake him up at some point, shouting and urging the teacher to punish him, but she didn't. Maybe she'd heard about what had happened, too.

When lunch came around, he quickly made his way to the roof, not wanting to have to deal with more questions from his friends. He still felt tired. Tired and helpless.

When the Third Angel had shown up, he could've prevented what happened to his sister, but he hadn't paid enough attention to her, and she had snuck out of the shelter and right into harm's way. He'd tried to cast the blame for it onto Shinji, but he'd always known it was really his fault.

This time…he'd been right there, and he hadn't been able to do anything. If Mana hadn't shown up in her big, powerful suit of armor, his sister might well be dead.

Of course, he knew his sister wouldn't even have _been_ in the hospital in the first place if she'd hadn't gotten injured before.

It messed with a guy's head.

Eventually, the lunch period ended. Toji didn't sleep through his afternoon classes, but he didn't pay attention, either. When they were dismissed for the day, he quickly took off, again dodging his two friends.

Rather than heading home, Toji went straight back to the hospital. The main lobby was still cordoned off by lots of yellow police tape, but he'd become way too familiar with the building since his sister had become a patient there; he easily got in through a side door and got his visitor's badge.

A short walk and a trip in an elevator brought him to his sister's new hospital room. There was a police officer stationed outside the door, just in case, but the one sleepy looking cop was nowhere near enough to make Toji feel confident that the place was now safe and secure.

The way the guy waved him in after barely looking at him didn't help.

Holding back a sigh, Toji walked into his sister's room and got a surprise.

Mariko wasn't alone. Misato Katsuragi and that blonde woman from the party they'd had to celebrate Misato's promotion to major were sitting in the room's visitor chairs, apparently having a conversation with his sister, who was looking bright-eyed that afternoon, in stark contrast to yesterday.

Shocked to find the two women there, Toji just stood and stared at them.

"Brother!" Mariko was the first to react to his entrance. "Miss Misato and Miss Ritsuko say they can make me better!"

He turned to the two women, noticing the way the purple-haired bombshell winced when his sister said that.

"What's this all about?" he asked warily.

"We…have an offer for you, Toji," Misato said.

The jock looked at his little sister in her hospital bed, all aglow thanks to the hope the two women had brought her. He thought about what had happened on the night Unit One had confronted the Third Angel, and about what had happened just the day before.

"I'm listening," he said.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** And so for once, I don't end a chapter with a terrible cliffhanger. Enjoy it while you can, because I don't plan on making a habit of it.

As always, thanks to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


	13. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Twelve:** The Puppeteer

Looking at the opponents arrayed before her, Steel's mind whirled as she tried to decide how best to defeat them.

The girl in the metal suit was confident in her victory, but there was difference between simply winning and winning well. Right now, that difference was a very important thing; the stakes were high.

One of her foes advanced a step, and Steel instantly sprang into action. With a thought, she handed over some control to her suit's computer, which wasted no time springing into action. Faster than she could've moved herself, the suit targeted the half dozen foes in front of her and then made her raise her arm. Her rivet gun sounded six times, and her enemies fell.

Or at least, the ones in front of her did. From behind her, more foes seemed to just _appear_ out of nowhere, hurling themselves onto her back. Steel grunted as she staggered forward several steps, almost falling right onto her face thanks to all the added weight on her.

"Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me," she groaned, gritting her teeth as she struggled to stand up straight.

Servomotors in her armor whirred loudly, and Steel flung herself into an upright position, sending her enemies flying. Not giving them a chance to recover, Steel took hold of one of the hammers attached to her back and swung it, sending the head of the heavy weapon slamming into her foes.

Unsurprisingly, they all went down.

_Plink! Plink! Plink!_

"You're _really_ just piling it on, aren't you?" Steel demanded, turning to see that still _more_ enemies had materialized and were now shooting at her with pistols.

Allowing the rounds to bounce off her armor like raindrops, Steel approached this new group, activating the progressive axe on one side of her hammer. Steel swung, allowing the blade to cut through them cleanly.

After that, there was silence, save for the deadly hum of the armored superwoman's still active progressive weapon.

"So, is that it, then?" Steel asked eventually, when no more foes leaped out of the darkness at her.

Several overhead lights came on above her, casting significantly greater illumination onto the training area in the Batcave.

"Yes, that's it, for now," Mayumi said, standing next to her large chair by the cave's ORACLE supercomputer.

Steel noticed with a trace of annoyance that the raven haired girl's perch was far above the part of the cave where she was standing.

_Perfect for Miss High and Mighty,_ she thought.

"So, pretty good, huh?" Mana asked as she removed her helmet.

"Hardly," Mayumi replied in a cold tone.

"Huh, what do you mean? I won, didn't I?" the auburn-haired girl demanded. "What the heck is the problem now?"

"For one thing, have you forgotten that you _are_ supposed to treat your opponents in these sessions as if they were live targets?" Mayumi asked. "If you had done _that_ to people, I'd have you out of the armor in a heartbeat."

Mana turned to look at the destroyed remains of the several Zeta-class training robots. "You know, when you asked me to design those things, I really thought you planned to use them for _your_ training sessions," she grumbled.

"Additionally, you weren't on guard enough for attacks from unexpected angles," Mayumi continued, ignoring her remark. "The second and third waves caught you completely by surprise."

"But they weren't able to hurt me at all," Mana countered. "I still overpowered them, no problem, just like I've been doing every time I've crossed paths with the Light of the Divine, ever since I made this new suit." She rapped at her armor with her gauntleted fist.

"You can't always rely so heavily on your armor," Mayumi scolded her.

"Why not?" Mana demanded, tired of this argument, which she felt like they'd had about two hundred times already. "Look, I get that being the insanely skilled super ninja who can beat down armies with her bare hands is your thing, but it's not mine. My thing is building power armor that turns me into a walking, flying mega tank, and I did it really well, I think. There hasn't been an enemy whose butt I haven't been able to kick in this thing yet."

"Metallo," Batgirl said.

"I did send him running, if you recall," Mana retorted. "And I've upgraded my armor, so I'll be better prepared if we met again."

"Which you probably will," Mayumi said. "And it's entirely possible that Metallo will have upgraded as well. Then, the difference between life and death for you could be how well you're prepared, not how well you prepared your armor." She paused for a beat. "And since you don't have anything better to do, you might as well spend your time training."

_That_ touched a nerve. "I _have_ been training," she snapped. In addition to the practice combat that her employer mandated, Mana had been spending plenty of time in the manor's gym, if only out of boredom and the need to clear her head occasionally. She still wasn't anywhere near Mayumi's _insane_ level of fitness, but she was definitely in the best shape of her life. "In between working on my armor and building stuff for you. How's your suit's new flying ability working out, by the way?"

"Fairly well," the raven-haired girl conceded.

"Just because I can't go to school right now doesn't mean that I'm going to spend every waking moment training," Mana continued. She knew she was ranting by now, but she didn't care. "I agreed to work for you, not be your slave!"

Mayumi was about to retort when the door leading up to the manor opened, and Motomu entered the cave.

"What is it?" the bespectacled girl asked shortly.

Motomu paused for a beat, clearly surprised by her obvious irritation. "Mr. Kagome is here. He is saying that he must speak to you immediately."

Mana knew that Mr. Kagome was a member of Yamagishi Enterprise's board of directors and a frequent thorn in Mayumi's side.

"Him again?" Mayumi asked. "Fine, I'm coming."

Directing one last glare at Mana, the lady of the house stalked upstairs, her every movement speaking of tightly pent up fury.

Motomu lingered down in the cave, and when Mayumi had vanished, her turned to the auburn-haired girl still standing in the training area. "Is everything all right?" he asked.

"Just fine," Mana said, heading over to her box frame so she could take off the armor.

"Very well," Motomu said. He obviously didn't believe her but didn't intend to press the issue.

He left the cave, and Mana allowed herself a gusty sigh once he was gone. Everything was _not_ fine, of course. She was growing seriously tired of being cooped up in Yamagishi Manor whenever she wasn't out being Steel, in addition to the way her relationship with Mayumi was increasingly chafing as time went on.

She really wanted to complain about Mayumi to someone, but obviously Motomu wasn't a good person for that, being quite devoted to the cause of Mana's ire.

She wished she could talk to Shinji or Asuka.

_Preferably Shinji,_ she thought with a small smile. Asuka, bless her, would probably just shift directly into problem solving mode (which would probably equate to kick-Batgirl's-butt mode), but she felt certain her boyfriend could be counted on to commiserate with her and offer sympathy. Which was what she really wanted at the moment, if she was honest with herself.

Unfortunately, that was out of the question, and it would remain so until she had thwarted the people who had injured her mother and tried to abduct her.

Then she frowned thoughtfully. "Maybe…"

* * *

"So, I've been thinking about the riddle we've been faced with," Kensuke said to Shinji as the two of them walked to school.

"Riddle?" Shinji asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you know, the _riddle_," the otaku said meaningfully. "The one we've been pondering."

"Uh, no, sorry, you lost me," Shinji said, befuddled.

"For crying out loud…" Kensuke grumbled, then looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to them. "Trying to figure out who the people after Mana are." He hissed quietly.

"Oh!" Shinji said. "_That_ riddle!"

"Yeah," the bespectacled boy said, rolling his eyes. "That one. I'll be referring to it as that from now on, so try to remember."

"Okay," Shinji agreed, a little miffed by his friend's obvious contempt for his inability to pick up on all the secret agent junk. "So, did you figure anything out?"

"Well, not exactly, but I have been giving the whole issue a lot of thought," Kensuke said. "And I managed to deduce a few things. Remember how we figured out that the group behind it probably had massive resources all over the world?"

"Yeah," Shinji nodded.

"Good. So, it seems to me that there are really only two possibilities there," Kensuke said. "Either Toji was actually right and we're dealing with the UN, or this is just some crazy group that's been around forever but nobody knows about it, like the Illuminati."

"Okay, and?" Shinji asked.

"Well, I figure that if we're dealing with the Illuminati, we're pretty much screwed," Kensuke said bluntly. "I mean, any group that has those kinds of resources but still manages to be completely unknown isn't gonna be exposed by a group of teenagers."

"I don't see how this helpful," Shinji pointed out, doing his best to hide his growing irritation.

"I'm just saying that we should work on the assumption that what we're dealing with is more the outgrowth of some existing, public organization," Kensuke said. "And given the reach we're assuming these people have, they're probably part of the UN."

Though he wasn't happy about the number of assumptions they were making, he knew it couldn't be helped, and his friend's logic did seem pretty sound so far. Even the great powers of the past didn't have the kind of reach that whoever was after Mana seemed to; in the post-Impact world, only the UN could really claim that.

There was only one problem.

"I can't see the UN doing anything like trying to abduct Mana," Shinji pointed out.

Though the rules regarding the use of the UN military weren't as strict as they had been before the Second Impact, it still wasn't easy. Indeed, the UN was regularly criticized for having the most powerful military the world had ever seen and doing next to nothing with it, except where the Angels were concerned, of course. Then they'd show up in force.

Not that they were much help in those situations, though.

"Well, it wouldn't be the regular UN. I mean, obviously they can't publically vote on whether or not to kidnap somebody," Kensuke said. "It would more likely be some subgroup or something. Some organization that the UN gives a lot of leeway and a lot of resources to. Probably they'd have something to do with defense."

"Oh my god." Shinji said as it clicked, and he realized how stupid he was not to have puzzled it out sooner.

"What?" Kensuke asked.

"It's NERV," Shinji said quietly. "NERV is the organization after Mana."

"Wha…what?" Kensuke asked, chuckling, albeit a little nervously. "Shinji, that's just crazy."

"No, it's not," the Third Child insisted. "Think about it. They fit the description perfectly. NERV is a UN funded paramilitary group with bases all over the world. They could've been behind kidnapping Hamilton and all the grief that Mana's gotten. And if it was them, it would explain why Mana refused to tell me who was after her. Since I work for NERV, she must've figured I'd be safer not knowing."

"But why would NERV do that?" Kensuke asked.

"I'm not sure exactly, but it must have something to do with the technology behind the Steel armor," Shinji said, his mind whirling now. "Mana told me that her mother was one of the scientists who worked on the Jet Alone, and I know Misato thought there was something fishy with the way it went crazy at the demonstration. Who had more motive to sabotage the thing than NERV?"

"So…what? You think NERV wanted the technology?" Kensuke asked quietly. "Or they wanted to destroy it so nobody would be able to build something to challenge Evangelion with again?"

"Maybe," Shinji said. "Probably."

They were both silent for a long moment.

"Dude," Kensuke finally said.

"Yeah," Shinji agreed, knowing all too well what it would mean if the organization that ran the city was truly what they (and Mana) were up against.

They didn't speak after that; they were getting close to the school by this point, and they didn't want to be overheard. The realization that NERV might be their shadowy cabal suddenly had the two boys more paranoid than ever.

As they neared the front entrance, they spotted Toji. The jock was leaning up against the school building, staring at nothing and looking oddly dazed.

"Hey," Kensuke eventually said when the larger boy didn't acknowledge them as they approached.

"Huh? Oh, hi," Toji replied, still looking out of it.

The otaku frowned. "What's with you?" he asked. "And where the heck were you earlier? I went by your place but nobody was home."

Toji looked up at his two friends for a moment, seemingly weighing his options. "I was at NERV," he answered.

"What?" Kensuke demanded.

"Why?" Shinji hissed.

A little taken aback by his friends' vehemence, but unable to clam up now, the jock elaborated. "I was there to be fitted for my plug suit. I'm gonna be a pilot."

"But why would you agree to pilot an EVA?" Shinji asked, horrified. "You know what it's like." He added, thinking of the time he'd been forced to allow Toji and Kensuke into the entry plug to keep them from being killed.

"I did it because NERV said they would pay for all my sister's treatments if I agreed," Toji said.

"Oh," Shinji said, suddenly unable to meet the jock's eyes. "I see."

The whole moment suddenly became very awkward, with none of them saying anything.

Finally, Toji coughed. "So, why did you guys look so freaked out just knowing that I'd gone to NERV?" he asked. "I swear, you couldn't have looked more shocked if you'd seen a ghost."

Shinji and Kensuke traded a look. "Uh…"

* * *

"Are you sure this is going to work, Ikari?" Metallo demanded.

"Of course," Gendo replied, his tone cool. "Why do you doubt me?" he asked.

Metallo looked at the array of parts spread out before them, which had only steadily grown as the days since his defeat at Steel's hands had dragged on. He believed that everything was there by this point, or nearly so, but there was no one to assemble all of it. As none of it officially existed, none of NERV's technicians or engineers could be assigned to the task. He was forced to wait for those moments when Dr. Akagi could find some time to spare, which was not often. At all.

It really seemed like he should've been able to put it all together himself, if only so he could get the hell out of Terminal Dogma. However, he lacked the skills, and despite the fact that Ikari had been able to program him with commands he was helpless to disobey, Metallo wasn't able to simply download the knowledge he'd need.

Also, he was still missing most of one arm. That wasn't helping anything.

"'Doubt' is too strong a word," Metallo said, walking a slow circle around all the components. "I'm feeling…wary. I will have to live in this, of course, and I can't help but be a tad anxious about the transfer."

"Your brain was once transferred from your human body to the one you occupy now," Gendo replied. "This will be far simpler."

"I hope so," Metallo grunted.

"If you have no other concerns, then I must go," Gendo said, already heading for the elevator that would take him back to Central Dogma.

"And leave me down here alone, again," Metallo grumbled. "I'm just a damn tool to you, aren't I, Ikari? Just something to be left down here and forgotten about until you have a use for me."

"Yes," Gendo said without hesitation. He didn't stop walking toward the elevator. "You are. So are many of the people around me. It is simply…more obvious with you."

"Then why do you keep coming down here?" Metallo demanded. "Taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with me and keep me informed?"

"Believe it or not, I do have a few minutes to spare here and there," Gendo said dryly.

"I don't believe you have enough free time to come down here without having to move appointments around," Metallo retorted. "You know why I think you bother to make these visits?"

"I don't care," Gendo said flatly.

Metallo ignored him. "I think you value the chance to talk to me more than you let on," he said. "Because I'm completely incapable of betraying you. So there's no need to pretend around me. No need to lie or keep up facades to manipulate me. You can be completely honest with me. I'll be you can't say the same thing about anyone else, even Fuyutsuki. When everyone's a tool, no one's a true confidant. Except me, due to my special circumstances."

They finally reached the elevator. Gendo stabbed the button, and the doors immediately swung open. He stepped inside and faced Metallo.

"Your attempt to psychoanalyze me is noted," Gendo said. "In the future, I suggest you use your abundant spare time to think about more productive things."

With that, he pressed the button to return to the surface, and the elevator doors swung closed. Leaving Metallo alone.

Again.

* * *

To Shinji Ikari, it often seemed as though he had been pondering different variants of the same question ever since he had arrived in Tokyo-3. It was certainly on his mind that afternoon as he walked home from school.

_What the heck am I going to do now?_

However, the question had never seemed quite as important—or as impossible to answer—as it did right then.

Shinji could be very bad at paying attention to his surroundings, especially the people in them, but it was all but impossible to not know that most everyone assumed there was more to NERV than met the eye. He, in turn, assumed that they were right, if only because the belief was so widely held, but it was something he'd never given much thought to.

After all, if somebody was embezzling money from NERV, or someone had plans to sell Evangelion technology once the war was over, what could he do about it? It was something he'd see on the news later, assuming he survived the war, and that would be it. Even if someone decided to turn the Evangelions against other humans, rather than the Angels, there wasn't much he could hope to stop them, aside from refusing to pilot Unit One in such a situation. And if NERV managed to get that autopilot system he'd been hearing about working, they might not even need pilots at all.

But he'd _never_ imagined that NERV would be up to this kind of thing, kidnapping people and running great, dark conspiracies.

_If it really is them, then I'm working for the people who are after my girlfriend,_ he thought grimly.

Not only that, but just about _everyone else_ he cared about was entangled with NERV in some way, now that Toji had agreed to pilot Unit Three. Of his friends, only Kensuke remained unaffiliated with the organization, and not from lack of trying.

He needed to know for sure whether NERV had anything to do with the attacks on Mana and her mother. If they did, well, that was horrifying, but maybe he could do…something.

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a pay phone ringing just as he was passing by it. Surprised, Shinji jumped, then looked around, not seeing anyone else in the immediate area.

He stared at the phone, which kept ringing. The thing really did seem like it had gone off the moment he'd passed by, but things had only gone downhill after the last time he'd used a pay phone…

"Oh, screw it," he muttered, then picked up the receiver. "Hello?"

"I am _so_ glad you picked up," a familiar and very welcome voice replied. "Believe me, it wasn't easy to set this up, and I'd hate to have to do it again."

"Mana!" Shinji exclaimed joyously, then quickly put his free hand over his mouth, hoping that he hadn't just given her away. For all he knew, someone could be listening in.

"Yeah, it's me, Shinji," she replied, apparently not perturbed by his use of her name. "It's good to hear your voice."

He swallowed. Suddenly, all the danger and the cloak-and-dagger stuff seemed further away. "It's good to hear you, too," he said.

"I miss you," Mana said.

"Right back at you," he said. "Uh, how did you manage to call this phone _just_ when I was walking by, though?"

Mana chuckled, sounding pleased with herself. "Hacked into the city's surveillance network. I know you walk by there on your way home from school, so I just watched and waited. Batgirl's got an _awesome_ computer, but its security's not as impervious to someone like me as she thinks."

Shinji smiled at how self-satisfied Mana sounded, not that he could blame her. Then he sobered. "Is this safe, though? I mean, what if someone traces this call?"

"Way ahead of them. This call is being bounced through so many towers and satellites that it's untraceable," Mana said. "I do know what I'm doing here, Shinji."

"I know you do, I just…worry anyway," he said sheepishly.

"That's nice of you. God, I wish I could meet with you face to face again…and get out of here," Mana said. "Batgirl and I haven't been getting along very well lately."

"She isn't hurting you or anything, is she?" Shinji asked.

"No, no, nothing like that," she reassured him. "Just arguments and stuff, but it does get old real fast when you can barely ever leave the house."

"I'll bet," Shinji said. "…look, Mana, I know you probably don't want to talk 'business' right now, but I think I finally figured out whose behind everything that happened to you and your mother, and why you didn't want me to know."

"Shinji!" Mana hissed in alarm.

"It's NERV, isn't it?" he asked. "They did what they did to you and her because they wanted the technology that went into the Steel armor. Probably for the Evangelions or something."

"…yes, it was NERV," Mana admitted, "but you can't let them know that _you_ know. And you _can't_ tell Asuka!"

"I won't tell her, if that's so important to you," Shinji said, a little confused. "But I can't just do nothing, Mana. I…I'm scared. For you and just about everybody I know." He swallowed. "They got Toji to agree to pilot Unit Three."

"What? But why?"

"His sister," Shinji answered.

"Oh, Shinji, I'm so—" The Third Child heard a loud beep in background. "Damn it, I can't talk any longer. Goodbye, Shinji. _Really_ hope to see you soon!"

"Good—"

There was a _click_, and then the line went dead.

* * *

"Now how the hell did I get myself into _this_ mess?" Toji wondered aloud.

The question seemed very relevant, now that the moment had finally come. The newly minted Fourth Child stood in the center of NERV's auxiliary base, looking up at the Evangelion that was going to be his.

Also, the damn plusuit he was wearing was giving him a hell of a wedgie, which didn't help anything. He hadn't realized that the damn things were so insanely clingy.

It was good to know, though. He'd really have to check out Ayanami when he got an opportunity to see her in one. Maybe the Devil, too, though he'd have to make sure she never caught him looking, and he sure as hell would never admit to it to anyone.

_Focus, stupid,_ he ordered himself before his mind could wander any further down that road.

Right. Despite the promise of getting to see good looking girls in tight clothing, his whole situation was still looking _extremely_ crazy, especially if Shinji's suspicions about NERV being behind all the hell that the Third Child's girlfriend had been though were correct.

Toji still couldn't quite figure out how Shinji had managed to get a girlfriend, and a very cute one at that, before him. He was a total stud, after all.

_…you know, maybe the Devil might not have been totally wrong all those times she called me a pervert,_ he mused.

Back to the topic at hand. How had this happened to him?

Of course, he wasn't really fooling anyone, least of all himself, when he pretended to be ignorant of that. He hadn't paid close enough attention to his sister on the night of the First Battle of Tokyo-3, she had slipped out of the shelter, and she had gotten hurt. He had tried to convince himself that the pilot of the EVA had been to blame, but he'd always known the truth.

It was his fault, so he had to be the one to fix it, and unfortunately, this was the only way he could do it.

A nearby door suddenly slid open with a little hiss, and Toji turned to see Misato walking toward him.

Under other circumstances, he would've seriously considered putting the moves on the older, gorgeous looking woman, since he was a big shot pilot and everything now. As it was, though, he just smiled weakly at her.

"Checking out your new ride, Pilot Suzuhara?" she asked him cheerfully.

"Something like that, Mi…uh, Major Katsuragi," he answered awkwardly.

She smiled at him, instantly making him wonder, as he had many times, how Shinji could _ever_ complain about getting to live with this woman. "You don't have to address me that way," she said. "I don't run a very formal operation, especially not with you pilots."

"Okay, then, Misato," Toji said, realizing that he sounded a little goofy but unable to stop himself.

The Ops Director checked her wristwatch. "It's almost time for the activation test to start," she said. "You'd better get to the entry plug."

He swallowed but managed to nod. "Right."

"Don't worry, Toji," Misato said gently. "All we're doing today is an activation test. Your real training doesn't start until Monday. For right now, all you have to do is sit in the seat while the thing starts up around you. Then we call it a day and you can go home."

"Right," he said again, though in a much cooler (or at least more normal) tone of voice this time.

She gestured toward a nearby elevator, and Toji nodded and headed for it. Soon, he was arriving alone at the catwalk where he could board Unit Three's entry plug.

_The damn thing looks like a giant metal tampon,_ he thought as he climbed inside the huge white cylinder and pulled it shut. A moment later the plug was inserted into the body of Unit Three with a vertigo-inducing lurch, and then the interior of the thing started to fill with LCL.

Shinji had told him about this part in detail, either in an attempt to prepare him or to impress upon the jock how miserable his first day "on the job" had been; Toji wasn't sure. Yet even that foreknowledge didn't prevent a stab of primal terror from piercing his heart.

The LCL rose above his mouth and nose, and Toji forced himself to inhale. The actual sensation of a liquid travelling into his nostrils and down his windpipe actually wasn't as bad as he'd expected, but the taste (another thing Shinji had taken pains to tell him about, but hadn't truly prepared him for) was horrible. He felt a wave of nausea roil his stomach.

_Don't throw up, damn you!_ He ordered himself. Shinji had done this, and he hadn't hurled, so Toji would be damned if he would.

"Electrifying LCL," someone announced over the radio.

Toji felt his skin prickle for a moment, and then the LCL suddenly lost its orange color, becoming transparent. The smell and taste abruptly became a lot less intense, too, much to his relief.

"You still with us, Pilot?" a familiar voice asked him.

"Uh, yeah, I'm good…" Toji struggled to remember the name of the blond scientist. "Dr. Akagi."

"Good," she said. "Okay, we're going to run through this activation nice and slowly, everything by the book. All you have to do is remain calm and sit tight unless we say otherwise."

"Okay, got it," he replied.

"All right, then. Beginning start-up procedures now. Initiating first level neural links," she said.

Toji felt a mild "tug" at his brain as the machinery started to wake up and hum around him. It was an extremely weird sensation, but it didn't hurt or anything, fortunately. Shinji had tried to describe this part to him, too, but Toji hadn't really understood. That was probably because there was no way to really describe it in words, he decided.

There was a lot of chatter on the radio, but none of it was directed at him, so Toji ignored it. The jock took a deep breath, trying not to think about that one battle where he and Kensuke had ended up riding shotgun in Unit One. It had been clear that the experience was hell for Shinji, even before the Third Child had started sobbing, obviously having gone through too much to care that two of his classmates were watching him.

"Initiating second level connections," someone announced.

Toji blinked, and for a brief moment he seemed to be looking at the inside of the testing chamber from a giant's perspective. An instant later he was gazing at the inside of the entry plug again, feeling dizzy and a little sick.

_God, Shinji had to do this…and they sent him into battle right after he did,_ the jock thought, feeling the last dregs of the resentment he felt toward the Third Child draining away at last.

"Initiating third level connections."

The final bridge between his mind and the Evangelion's brain fell into place with an almost audible _click,_ and suddenly Toji was both himself and Unit Three at once, seeing with two pairs of eyes, feeling both cold metal armor and the tight material of the plugsuit pressed against his body. It was terrifying, it was badly disorienting…but it was also kind of awesome in a way.

Shinji had never mentioned that. Toji felt pretty sure it was because his friend had never seen it that way.

Then, just as abruptly as the third level connections had brought this wave of sensation upon him, everything went dark and silent around the newly minted Fourth Child, and he was just himself again. It was almost as unnerving as "becoming" Unit Three had been; Toji had always felt big and strong—and he always had been compared to most other boys his age—and the abrupt shift in perspective left him feeling very small and puny. Not a cool experience.

"Hey?" he called out. His radio seemed to be as dead as all the rest of the equipment. "Is anybody out there? Was this supposed to happen?"

Nobody answered. Instead, he felt Unit Three starting to rumble around him. The damned thing was moving!

"Oh, crap," he muttered to himself. "This is really bad, isn't it?"

* * *

Meanwhile, as the NERV auxiliary base in Matsushiro was crumbling, Mana Kirishima was in the Batcave, toiling away at a large workbench which she'd largely claimed as her own ever since taking up residency in Yamagishi Manor.

"Don't have anything better to do," Mana grumbled to herself as she fiddled with a batarang, still annoyed at her employer. "Yeah, except coming up with a hundred variations of what's basically a glorified, sharpened boomerang…"

She heard the door to the cave open and turned her head to see Motomu entering with a tray of food.

"Your lunch, Miss Kirishima." He said, finding an empty spot on the workbench and setting it down.

"Is it that late already?" Mana asked, rubbing her eyes.

"It's noon," the butler nodded.

"Oh. Thanks, then," Mana said, moving some of her tools out of the way so she could bring the tray closer.

"You're quite welcome," Motomu replied. "When you're—"

The butler's words were cut off as the computer started to release a loud, though mercifully not deafening alarm.

"What's that?" the butler asked.

"Don't know. Let's see," the auburn haired girl replied, abandoning her lunch and going over to the computer. A few keystrokes got her the information she was looking for, and her eyes widened. "Angel. NERV's ordered everyone to the shelters."

"Well, you need not worry, Miss Kirishima," Motomu reassured her. "The Batcave is as safe as any shelter in Tokyo-3."

"It's not me I'm worried about," Mana said, furiously working at the computer. "And of course, NERV is blacking out the media, as usual…" she grumbled to himself.

"You're trying to find out exactly what's going on?" Motomu asked, coming up behind her to look over her shoulder at the screen. "But surely even you can't hack the MAGI."

"I don't have to," Mana replied. "The regular military knows what's going on, too; after all, NERV mostly uses their satellites and stuff to watch the Angels. And their systems aren't quite as crazily well protected as the MAGI. They are good, of course, but they can't stand up to an ORACLE supercomputer. Not when someone like me is the one using it." She added with a little smirk.

"I do hope that this Angel is nowhere near the school," Motomu fretted. "Miss Mayumi's there, and she has none of her equipment with her at the moment."

"The Angel's not at the school," Mana said, swallowing as she got the information she wanted. "It's at Matsushiro. It seems like it's taken control of Unit Three. So far as the JSSDF can determine, the pilot's still trapped inside the EVA with it."

"Is the pilot a friend of yours?" Motomu asked.

"More like a friend of a friend," Mana said quietly, then came to a decision. "I have to go help."

"What?" Motomu asked, sounding alarmed as Mana headed over to her armor.

"I have to," Mana said. "NERV doesn't have the tools to rescue a pilot from a possessed Evangelion. The other EVAs aren't exactly built for that kind of thing, after all."

"Your armor wasn't, either," Motomu pointed out.

"No, but it's a lot closer to being the right tool for the job," Mana said as she lowered herself into the Steel suit's metal legs.

"Miss Mayumi won't approve of this," Motomu warned.

"Right now, I couldn't care less about what Miss Mayumi would or wouldn't approve of," she said flatly.

She couldn't even imagine how crushed Shinji would be if his friend was killed in such a fashion. She had to do something, especially since she knew she couldn't simply count on Supergirl to come zipping to the rescue; Asuka would no doubt be piloting Unit Two within minutes, if she wasn't already, so she wouldn't be available to perform any super heroics.

Which meant it was up to her, the "other Girl of Steel".

_God help me,_ she thought ruefully as she finished putting her armor on.

"Would you mind opening the doors for me?" Steel asked Motomu politely.

The butler hesitated, then sighed and went to open the tunnel that Mayumi used to leave the cave whenever she went out on the Batcycle. "Good luck, Miss Kirishima."

"Thank you," Steel replied, before taking off.

It only took her seconds to fly out of the cave, soaring through the clear blue sky. Sunlight glinted upon her armor.

"Linking up to the ORACLE computer, downloading Unit Three's current coordinates…" the girl in the metal suit muttered to herself, doing most of the work with mental commands. "…inputting into the navigational system, and there we go. Maximum thrust!"

The flames bursting from the rockets in her boots abruptly doubled in size, and Steel was catapulted through the air. The girl inside the metal suit grimaced as the force of acceleration bore down on her, but she didn't dare slow down. She had no doubt that NERV and the regular military were scrambling to respond to this latest threat, and their presence would only complicate things.

"Come on, come on…" she muttered to herself.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, but which had only been a couple of minutes, she spotted it. Unit Three was striding across a vast, empty field, an obsidian giant bringing the promise of death with it.

It was still alone, Steel noted with relief. With any luck, she'd be able to get Toji out of the thing and safely away before anyone else showed up.

Decelerating as rapidly as she dared, Steel carefully approached the rogue Evangelion. It didn't react to her at all; if it even noticed her, it probably regarded her as no more dangerous than a fly.

That was fine with Steel. The last thing she needed was for it to actively try to stop her. Besides, even with her armor, she doubted that she was much of a threat to it.

"Okay, now where's the entry plug?" she wondered aloud. Then she saw Unit Three's back. "Oh."

The metal cylinder which held the pilot was already half out of the Evangelion's body. NERV had apparently tried to eject the thing, but the system had been thwarted by a web of some kind of grayish…gunk.

"Ew," she remarked, even as she landed next to the thing.

Grabbing hold of her hammer axe, Steel activated the progressive blade on it, which came to life its usual deadly hum. She swung, half expecting an AT field to materialize at the last second and stop the weapon cold. However, no invisible barrier sprang into being, and she was easily able to slice away several of the strands of the gray stuff.

Then she hesitated, waiting for the Angel to react to her actions and to try to get her off of itself. When that didn't happen, she went back to work, cutting off the tip of the entry plug with one swing. Returning her hammer to its place, Steel walked over to the plug and peered inside.

"Toji," she gasped.

The newly minted Fourth Child was seated inside, covering the gray slime all the way up to his neck. It looked like he was unconscious.

Reaching inside, she took old of him, grabbing him under his armpits. She expected the Angel to fight for its hostage, but she easily lifted him out; the boy's weight was nothing to the strength that her armor gave her.

"I got you, Toji," she said comfortingly to him as she gathered the jock in her arms and took off.

Looking back, she saw Unit Three continue plodding toward Tokyo-3, apparently not caring one bit that she was taking the Fourth Child away.

_That was easy,_ she thought. _Not that I'm complaining or anything…_

She landed gently in a nearby wooded area. Steel knew that she had to make her exit quickly; she doubted that the JSSDF would just let her go on her merry way if they had anything to say about it, and she _knew_ that NERV wouldn't. However, she couldn't just run off until she was sure that Toji wouldn't simply die while he waited for someone to come and get him.

Laying him on the ground, she carefully patted his cheek a few times. "Suzuhara," she said. "Suzuhara, c'mon. Please, wake up."

_Please don't make me give you mouth to mouth,_ she added silently.

Not that Toji wasn't kind of cute in a rugged sort of way, but she was with Shinji. Besides, he'd practically been swimming in that gray crap.

Fortunately, he chose that moment to stir, letting out a soft groan. The jock's eyes slowly opened.

"Toji, are you all right?" she asked urgently.

"Uh, yeah…I think so," he said, sounding understandably dazed. "Kirishima, is that you?"

Her eyebrows rose beneath her helmet. "So Shinji told you?"

"Um, yeah," Toji confessed.

Well, she supposed that was all right. After all, the people she really would've liked to have kept her secret from already knew it.

"Did you get me out of the EVA?" he asked, sitting up.

"Yeah," Steel grinned as she helped him to his feet. "Figured that it would be wrong not save my boyfriend's best friend if I could."

The jock laughed. "Remind me to hit Shinji real hard if he ever thinks about dumping you," he said. "You're a keeper, Kirishima."

"Why thank you, Suzuhara," she chuckled. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I should probably go. I haven't been invited to this party. Tell Shinji that I said hi, and that I miss him, okay?"

"Will do," Toji promised.

Smiling, Steel activated the jets in her boots.

Or at least, she tried to. Nothing happened.

"Oh, great," the armored superwoman groaned to herself. "I knew that was too easy. What's wrong now?"

As though in answer to her question, warning crimson messages abruptly flashed across her HUD. Her eyes widened at what they told her.

"How the hell could someone be hacking me?!" she exclaimed incredulously.

"Kirishima? Are you all right?" Toji asked.

Steel ignored him, too preoccupied with trying to figure out the problem. The only thing her suit's systems were directly linked to was the ORACLE supercomputer sitting back in the Batcave, and while that machine was certainly capable of hacking into her suit, there was no reason why it would. Mayumi wouldn't ever need to, thanks to the damned secret commands she'd programmed in.

Nevertheless, Steel quickly disabled all wireless connections, confident that would shut down her attacker.

Unfortunately, it didn't. If anything, even more warning messages started popping up before her eyes.

_But this is __**impossible!**_ She thought, her mind spinning.

Then she felt something slick and slimy and horrible brush against both her hands, and she looked down, gasping.

Some of that awful gray ooze had clung to her gauntlets after she'd liberated Toji, and now it was worming its way into her armor through the cracks in the joints. As she watched, the last of it disappeared into the suit.

Then, Steel took a single, jerky step in the direction of Tokyo-3, completely without any command from the girl wearing the suit. Then Steel took another.

"Mana! What's going on?!" Toji demanded.

"It's the Angel!" she exclaimed. "It's taking control of my armor just like it took control of your Evangelion! I can't control the legs anymore!"

"Then take off the damned armor!" the jock said. "Take it off before it controls the whole thing!"

"I can't!" Mana said. "Without this suit I'm just a normal girl. They'll catch me!"

"And being hijacked by an Angel is so much better?!" Toji snapped, grabbing hold of her helmet and trying to pull it off.

With a single shove, Steel pushed him away. The jock went staggering, then tripped over a tree root and landed on his rear end.

"I didn't do that!" Steel said, as she continued to march to Tokyo-3 against her will.

"Mana!" Toji said, springing back to his feet and rushing over to her.

"Don't touch me!" she shrieked. "The Angel could kill you if you try to stop me!"

"So what am I supposed to do?" the jock demanded. "Just stand here and let the damned thing kidnap you?"

"I'll be fine! I'll figure it out," Steel said.

_Somehow,_ she silently added.

The Fourth Child looked like he was about to argue, but he never got the chance. Apparently growing more confident in its ability to control the suit, the Angel threw Steel into a sprint. The jock was left standing there, watching his best friend's girlfriend rush toward Tokyo-3, as helpless as he had been only minutes ago.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** So, once again, I leave you all on a cliffhanger. It just happens sometimes.

Anyway, not much to say here, so as always, thanks to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader, as well.


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